The Condensed White House Correspondent’s Dinner Remarks About Fox News and Crybaby Trump

Posted by Mark NC on May 1, 2022 at 4:02 pm. 1 Comments :

This year the White House Correspondent’s Dinner (WHCD) returned after a two year absence due to the COVID pandemic. What’s more it was the first time in six years that the President of the United States attended the formerly annual event. That’s because Donald Trump is too big a crybaby to sit through a program that might include a few jokes at his expense. So he boycotted every year during his occupation of the White House.

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In addition to his infantile emotional frailty, Trump is also too self-absorbed to want to help a charity, which is the reason the White House Correspondents Association holds this dinner. It’s purpose is to raise money for scholarships. But Trump’s snubbing of the dinner was all for the best because the president is expected to deliver his own humorous address at this affair. Just imagine how critically injured Trump would have been after falling on his … let’s say face while trying to be funny.

This year President Biden graciously accepted the invitation to attend and came prepared with an entertaining speech that was both comical and respectful of the fact that the world is struggling through trying times. Biden was followed by Trevor Noah, host of the Daily Show. And as a public service for those who were unable to watch the entirety of both performances, some highlights have been collected below. Specifically the ones relating to either Trump or Fox News. And for anyone who is interested, a transcript is here, and the full videos are also posted below. So without further ado…

Excerpts From President Biden’s Speech:

“This is the first time the president attended this dinner in six years. It’s understandable. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of COVID. […]

“Just imagine if my predecessor came to this dinner this year. Now that would really have been a real coup.” […]

“I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight because of COVID. Well, we’re here to show the country that we’re getting through this pandemic. Plus, everyone had to prove they were fully vaccinated and boosted. So, if you’re at home watching this and you’re wondering how to do that, just contact your favorite Fox News reporter. They’re all here vaccinated and boosted, all of them. […]

“And, look, Fox — Fox News, I’m really sorry your preferred candidate lost the last election. To make it up to you, I’m happy to give my Chief of Staff to you all so he can tell Sean Hannity what to say every day.”

Excerpts From Trevor Noah’s Speech:

“[Ron DeSantis has] been so busy trying to outmaneuver Trump for 2024. I see you, Ron. I see you, player. Yes, I’ve seen what you’ve been doing. Blaming Trump for the lockdowns, distancing yourself from the vaccines that Trump created with his own two hands.” […]

“Trump said he won the election. But everyone was just able to look at the numbers and see that he was wrong. That’s why Ron Desantis is one step ahead. First, you ban the math textbooks, then nobody knows how to count the votes.” […]

“And I will say, President Biden, that you are a big man here. A really big man. You could have targeted Donald Trump but instead, you chose to only raise taxes on billionaires. That was big of you. Really nice. Prove me wrong, show me the taxes.” […]

“You guys [in the press] are relentless. Every day you show up and every day you demand answers on the pressing issues of the day. And then Fox News asks about Hunter Biden. And I’ll be honest, though, I actually think that’s a good thing. I really do. I think people need to be held accountable if they’re using their dad’s name to get ahead in life. And I can’t think of anyone better to ask about that than Peter Doocy. Yes, wherever he is, Chris Wallace laughed at that joke.” […]

“Fox News is sort of like a waffle house. Yes, it’s relatively normal in the afternoon but as soon as the sun goes down, there’s a drunk lady named Jeanine threatening to fight every Mexican who comes in.” […]

“How about that Fox Primetime lineup, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham? Their coverage of COVID was really impactful. Their segments about vaccines moved their viewers – into the ICU.” […]

“Oh, Laura Ingraham. Wow. What can you say about her that hasn’t already been said by the antidefamation league?” […]

“Tucker Carlson, are you kidding me? That man is a beast. Who else could fill an entire show each night asking questions that Google could easily answer? Do vaccines work? Who really won the election? Who’s the president right now? Is this America? Gripping stuff.” […]

And there you have it. For the first time in six years America has a President who can laugh at himself; a President who isn’t afraid to give and take a few light-hearted punches; a President who doesn’t think the media is “the enemy of the people.”

You may have noticed that Biden didn’t say Trump’s name once. But that doesn’t mean that Trump won’t take offense. Taking offense is his resting attitude. It’s nearly twenty-four hours later and he hasn’t even mentioned the dinner or the jokes about him. So you know he’s privately seething. Poor baby.

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Trump Declares that ‘I Am Not Going Back On Twitter’ After the Elon Musk Takeover

Posted by Mark NC on April 25, 2022 at 4:45 pm. 4 Comments :

America’s oligarchy is exercising it’s privilege once again as the world’s richest man drops a few of his billions of dollars to add Twitter to the playroom in his ultra-exclusive world. Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media giant is profoundly significant due to its influence on politics, journalism, and culture.

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The debate over how dangerous this is for society in America – and the world – is complex and will unfold in the weeks to come as Musk’s intentions are revealed. However, in the short term we already have some news about a famous former tweeter. Donald Trump didn’t waste any time telling Fox News (who else) what the Musk acquisition means to him. According to Fox News…

“Former President Trump will not return to Twitter, even as Elon Musk purchases the social media company and reinstates his account, instead using his own TRUTH Social as the sole platform for his voice. […] The former president told Fox News Monday that he will formally join his own TRUTH Social over the next seven days, as planned.

“‘I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,’ Trump told Fox News. ‘I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.’ […] He added: ‘The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.'”

Let’s set aside for the time being that Trump lies far too often to take anything he says seriously. If Twitter were to offer to reinstate his account, it’s ridiculous to suggest that he would rebuff the offer because he’s “staying on TRUTH” Social (TS). How can he “stay” on a platform that he has posted on only once nearly two months ago, and from which he has been conspicuously absent ever since? He couldn’t even get the name straight at his recent rally, calling it “Troth Sential.”

Trump was, and is, a Twitter addict (his spokes-shill still posts for him daily in defiance of Twitter’s own rules). And he isn’t likely to trade access to his 84 million Twitter followers (most of which were bots or fakes) for a fraction of that on TS. Trump went on to say that…

“‘We’re taking in millions of people, and what we’re finding is that the response on TRUTH is much better than being on Twitter,’ Trump said. ‘Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can.'”

Actually, TS has assigned a little over a million wait list numbers to people who have tried to sign up. Most of them still have not been able to log on. And as for fake accounts, there have already been a multitude of them on TS. The site even “verified” a Fox News account that Fox denied having anything to do with.

What’s more, there is so little interaction on TS that the users who are online have complained that it is an echo chamber of fellow cultists whose homogeneous agreement is terminally boring. And now Trump is promising that it’s going to get even worse…

“‘This is a platform for my voice. TRUTH is a platform for my voice and for my supporters,’ Trump said. ‘But I want everybody to come over to TRUTH—conservatives, liberals, whatever. […] ‘TRUTH Social will be a voice for me,’ Trump continued. ‘And that’s something nobody else can get.'”

It isn’t an accident that Trump keeps referring to the site as simply “TRUTH.” There is nothing “Social” about it. Like everything else in Trump World, it is about him and only him. And he isn’t shy about saying so explicitly.

The worst part of all of this, from Trump’s perspective, is that the site may never even become viable. The shell company that is serving as its Wall Street proxy (DWAC) declined another 12.9% today. It has cratered 64% since the beginning of March. Reuters is reporting that key personnel are abandoning ship and that…

“Another open question is how TMTG is funding its current growth. The company is planning to go public through a merger with blank-check firm Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) . The deal is under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission and is likely months away from being finalized. […] Investors have pledged $1 billion to TMTG but they won’t hand over that money until the DWAC deal closes.”

So the the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) and DWAC deal is likely another illegal Trump scam that will never go through. And when it fails Trump won’t get any of the money that has allegedly been pledged. More likely it will result in investor lawsuits that will cost him and his accomplices a fortune.

As for Twitter’s future under Musk, Jessica J. González of Free Press recently published an editorial that exposes how truly awful the site could be under Musk. She wrote that…

“Musk’s ability to be an accountable steward of this massive online community is questionable at best. […] he has a poor track record of protecting other Twitter users and respecting their free speech. He has used the platform to discredit and disparage those who disagree with him, and he has lashed out at journalists who have written or produced things he didn’t like.”

Musk’s pretense of advocating for free speech is utterly insincere. It is a pathway to tolerating hate speech and disinformation that divides people and incites violence. It would make Twitter unbearable for most decent users, as well as advertisers. And it doesn’t help that Musk has been sued for “racial discrimination and harassment after finding a widespread pattern of mistreatment of Black workers” at his Tesla plant. So look for Twitter to collapse unless its executives and board of directors manage to keep Musk’s worst instincts in check.

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Tucker Carlson Spews Disinformation to Slander Barack Obama for Opposing Disinformation

Posted by Mark NC on April 23, 2022 at 1:31 pm. 3 Comments :

Former President Barack Obama visited Stanford University on Friday to deliver a profound and timely address on the dangers of disinformation. He warned that “Once [people] lose trust in their leaders, the mainstream media, in political institutions, in each other, in the possibility of truth, the game is won.” It was a compelling discourse on the precarious state of modern communications and propaganda.

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Naturally, whenever Obama appears in public to remind everyone what an intelligent and articulate leader sounds like, Fox News needs to start flinging feces at him in a desperate effort to deflect from his pertinent and persuasive message. And on Friday that assignment was given to Fox’s Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson. Carlson began his harangue by flagrantly misrepresenting Obama’s words. Carlson said that…

“Obama argued that only his political opponents lie, and they must be stopped immediately.”

Of course, Obama didn’t say either of those things. Carlson is simply making stuff up so that he can subsequently condemn it in his typically pretentious and whiny voice. This is, after all, the same cretinous cream puff who recently declared that “The End of Men” was imminent and that the only salvation was a program of therapeutic testicle tanning.

Carlson followed his opening lie with a video of Obama that actually proved that Carlson was lying. In the video Obama said that…

“People like Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it’s not necessary for people to believe this information in order to weaken democratic institutions. You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing, that citizens no longer know what to believe.”

“People like Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it’s not necessary for people to believe disinformation … You just have to flood a country’s public square with enough raw sewage.”

— President Obama on how disinformation leads to people losing faith in democracy pic.twitter.com/mZvidysEB9

— The Recount (@therecount) April 21, 2022

Whereupon Carlson proceeded to excrete some more misrepresentations of what Obama had said. Carlson raged…

“Oh. So people who disagree with Barack Obama aren’t just saying things that are wrong, They’re flooding raw sewage into our country.”

Once again, not only did Obama never say that people who disagree with him are wrong, his reference to “flooding raw sewage into our country” was taken directly from remarks made by Steve Bannon, who stirred up his seditionist audience by saying that “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.” Carlson not only neglects to mention that, but he has clearly taken it to heart, as evidenced by his body of work.

Carlson continued…

“So this guy is not just liberal. In fact, he’s not liberal at all. He’s a full-blown fascist who hates you and wants to keep you from talking, or else. He wants censorship of anyone who disagrees with him, and now he just comes out and says it.”

Really? Where Carlson gets that “fascist” business from is a mystery. It certainly isn’t from anything that Obama said. It’s most likely projection, wherein Carlson is just observing what he sees in himself and projecting it onto his foe. Carlson then plays another video that proves, again, that he’s lying.

“While content moderation can limit the distribution of clearly dangerous content, it doesn’t go far enough. Users who want to spread disinformation have become experts at pushing right up to the line of what, at least, published company policies allow. And at those margins social media platforms tend not to want to do anything. Not just because they don’t want to be accused of censorship, but because they still have a financial incentive to keep as many users engaged as possible.”

Exactly! Ultra-rightist Republicans like Carlson repeatedly misconstrue the Constitution’s First Amendment. As Obama noted, it is a check on government overreach, and does not apply to private companies. It is not a violation of anyone’s rights if CNN or Fox News or the New York Times or Twitter declines to disseminate commentaries that are false, abusive, or otherwise harmful or unlawful or merely violate the company’s terms of service. It’s called free speech. Nevertheless, Carlson persists in his ignorance to say…

“So me and my friends at the Aspen Institute need to be in complete control of every word uttered or else it’s not democracy. That’s the case he’s making. That’s the case their all making.”

No, Tucker. That’s not the case that Obama, or anyone else, is making. It’s just the mischaracterization that you’re making to deliberately deceive your already dimwitted viewers. Which you are doing quite well. And it’s why President Biden observed accurately that Fox News is “one of the most destructive forces in the United States.”

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Trump Orders His Cult To ‘Drop Off of Twitter’ and Calls For It To Be Outlawed

Posted by Mark NC on January 4, 2022 at 12:24 pm. 10 Comments :

The brazenly anti-American and anti-democratic compulsions of Donald Trump continue to be exhibited with each new public pronouncement he issues. His aspirations for authoritarianism, and his affinity for brutal dictators, was recently affirmed with his “endorsement” of Hungary’s fascistic Viktor Orbán.

On the heels of that gushing embrace of tyranny, Trump is now giving voice to another of his noxious notions that negates the liberties that define America. In a tweet reacting to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s well deserved suspension from Twitter, Trump lashed out in his typically incoherent and infantile fashion, saying that…

“Twitter is a disgrace to democracy. They shouldn’t be allowed to do business in this Country. Marjorie Taylor Greene has a huge constituency of honest, patriotic, hard-working people. They don’t deserve what’s happened to them on places like low-life Twitter and Facebook. Everybody should drop off of Twitter and Facebook. They’re boring, have only a Radical Left point of view, and are hated by everyone. They are a disgrace to our Nation. Keep fighting, Marjorie!”

If you had to catalog everything that Trump has said is a “disgrace” it would require a bookshelf that spanned the length of Great Wall of China. Which would be convenient because he’s also a big fan fan of Xi Jinping. Due to his pitifully limited vocabulary, Trump has overused the word so much that is has ceased to have any meaning. And as for “democracy.” we’ve already established that that word has no meaning to Trump.

Moving on, Trump grumps that Twitter “shouldn’t be allowed to do business in this Country.” How he proposes to outlaw it isn’t explained. But it’s something that he regretted not doing when he was still occupying the White House. He is currently suing Twitter and other Internet services because that’s just what you’d expect from the King of Cancel Culture. But he is too mentally feeble to grasp that calling for a ban on the constitutional rights of social media platforms that he doesn’t like contradicts his intended, albeit disingenuous, message of free speech.

Defending Greene and her constituency of like-minded Trump cultists, Trump commands his glassy-eyed disciples to “drop off of Twitter and Facebook.” Because surrendering opportunities to express oneself is Trump’s idea of open discourse. He wants his klan to be free of any contrary opinions that might contain some kernal of truth. More likely, he just wants to harm Twitter and Facebook for not kowtowing to his supreme dictates.

However, as usual Trump is lying about Twitter having “only a Radical Left point of view, and are hated by everyone.” All of the objective studies show that these platforms actually favor conservatives. As reported by the Guardian…

“Republicans including Donald Trump have raged against Twitter and Facebook in recent months, alleging anti-conservative bias, censorship and a silencing of free speech. According to a new report from New York University, none of that is true.

“Disinformation expert Paul Barrett and researcher J Grant Sims found that far from suppressing conservatives, social media platforms have, through algorithms, amplified rightwing voices, ‘often affording conservatives greater reach than liberal or nonpartisan content creators’”.

These findings have been confirmed by repeated studies including this one by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and this one by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Finally, if Twitter is “hated by everyone,” then everyone has a funny way of showing it. The platform currently has more than 200 million users. That’s far more than anything Trump will ever have on his yet to be launched (and bona fide scam), TRUTH Social. Although if Trump wants to herd his devotees into his own disease-ridden corral, we’re all for it. A study conducted after Trump was banned from Twitter showed that “online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent.” So the departure of Trump and his crackpot crusaders can only make the Internet better.

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Rittenhouse Judge Schroeder Bans MSNBC from Courtroom in Violation of the First Amendment

Posted by Mark NC on November 18, 2021 at 3:40 pm. 1 Comments :

The trial of teen vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse has produced some bizarre and legally questionable moments. Many of those moments relate directly to the behavior of Judge Bruce Schroeder whose rulings have overwhelming favored the defense and been openly hostile to the prosecution.

On Thursday this tendency of Schroeder to put his right-wing prejudices on display crossed another line of propriety for a jurist. Responding to a report that a reporter allegedly working for MSNBC News was following a bus that was transporting the jurors, Schroeder interrupted the proceedings to make this alarming declaration:

“I have instructed that no one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial. This is a very serious matter and I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is, but absolutely it would go without much thinking that someone who is following a jury bus, that is an extremely serious matter will be referred to the proper authorities for further action.”

NBC News denies that its journalists contacted, or intended to contact, jury members in the Rittenhouse trial: https://t.co/JWAG22XXFm

— The Recount (@therecount) November 18, 2021

This is indeed a “very serious matter,” but not for the reasons that Schroeder suggests. There are several problems with how the Judge reacted to this report. First of all, in his statement he admits that he “I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is.” But he issues his prohibition against MSNBC News anyway. What if the truth is that the reporter was not from MSNBC? What if there was nothing untoward taking place? Then Schroeder punished the network despite it having done nothing to warrant it. That is the definition of government censorship and violates the First Amendment of the Constitution.

What’s more, Schroeder may have gotten the network wrong. Reports variously describe the reporter as having been associated with MSNBC or NBC, two different networks. So it’s pretty sloppy of the Judge to impose such severe penalties when he doesn’t even know who the suspected offender is affiliated with. In addition to that, it is ridiculous to ban MSNBC from the courtroom when reporters from NBC, who were not covered by the order, are still permitted to cover the trial. They can then appear on MSNBC to give their account of the proceedings.

Finally, Schroeder took the extreme measure of banning the entire MSNBC network, rather than just the alleged offender. At best he could have argued that the reporter who was involved should have his courtroom privileges suspended, not for the duration of the trial, but until the facts were ascertained. But Schroeder didn’t take that rational step. Instead he punished everyone at MSNBC, despite the fact that none of them had done anything wrong. It also needs to be remembered that the reporter in question wasn’t found to have done anything wrong either. NBC News released a statement saying that…

“Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation. While the traffic violation took place near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them”

Rittenhouse’s defense attorney has already filed a motion for a mistrial, which Schroeder has yet to rule on. But if anyone is entitled to a mistrial, it’s the prosecution. And Schroeder should be cited for judicial misconduct. He has shown bias throughout this trial. And his disrespect for the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press makes his malfeasance on the bench all the more reprehensible.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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Crybaby Trump is Whining (and Lying) Again that Fox News (and Everyone) is Against Him

Posted by Mark NC on October 24, 2021 at 4:50 pm. 9 Comments :

The cult of Donald Trump – and Trump himself – likes to pretend that he is a macho man and is predestined to be America’s savior. The reality, though, is that he is a whimpering snowflake who can’t stop wailing about his imagined victimhood. He even admitted that he is “the most fabulous whiner.”

On Sunday afternoon Trump alt-tweeted, via his Twitter ban defying spokes-shill, Liz Harrington, another rant against all the “many forces” lined up against him. He was apparently triggered by having seen, or been told about, a negative advertisement on Fox News that was less than flattering: He blathered that…

“What good is it if FOX News speaks well of me when they continually allow horrible and untruthful anti-Trump commercials to be run—and plenty of them. In the good old days, that would never have happened and today it happens all of the time. Ratings-challenged CNN and MSNBC would never run a positive Trump ad—never. With so many forces against us, Big Tech, the Fake News Media, the Radical Left, the RINOs, and more, we are at such a disadvantage, but we will win anyway!”

WTHolyF? So Trump believes that Fox News is obligated to present only positive news about him and then refuse to accept any advertising by parties who have an opposing view. As usual, he doesn’t offer any examples of anything that was “horrible and untruthful” or “anti-Trump.” His willfully blind disciples are just supposed to accept whatever he says without question.

What’s more, Trump has the perverse opinion that there were “good old days” when TV networks would decline to air political ads that didn’t unflinchingly fawn over aspiring authoritarians like Trump. He goes on to falsely assert that CNN and MSNBC don’t air pro-Trump ads. But you have to wonder why he would care when he also claims that no one is watching them.

Trump has never been an ardent fan of free speech. To the contrary, he incessantly yowls whenever anyone exercises it to criticize him. At his recent cult rally in Iowa he complained about the loss of free speech even as he called for banning speech. And after having been evicted from Twitter for inciting violence, he just announced his intention to launch his own social media venture to restore his free speech rights. Although his site explicitly prohibits anyone from speaking negatively about him.

Trump’s pathetic perceptions of victimization are typical of malignant narcissists who view any criticism as unfair and hostile. And Trump has itemized an army of critics including “Big Tech, the Fake News Media, the Radical Left, the RINOs, and more.” But he leads off with Fox News, the network whose editorial mission got him elected in 2016, and is still supporting his “Big Lie” about the 2020 election. Never mind all the times that Trump blasted Fox News as “dead, totally fake, not watchable. lost” etc. There is simply no pleasing Trump because no matter how much you kowtow to him, it will never be enough.

UPDATE: This may be the ad that has Trump’s panties in a twist…

Donald, why are you so scared to go to Virginia?#TrumpInHiding pic.twitter.com/hr9o1dBRfJ

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 17, 2021

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

Trump Whines that ‘We Don’t Have Free Speech’ as He Literally Calls for Banning Speech

Posted by Mark NC on October 10, 2021 at 11:59 am. 4 Comments :

Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa, there was yet another coronavirus super-spreader cult rally featuring the twice impeached, former reality TV game show host, and America’s Biggest Loser, Donald Trump. The event lived down to its hype as a couple of ear-bleeding hours of a malignant narcissist complaining that the election he fairly and decisively lost was “stolen” from him.

Among the innumerable absurd laments that excreted from the oral orifice of the blockhead who brags that he is the most fabulous whiner, were some commentaries on the sanctity of the First Amendment. Trump’s yammering (video below) addressed, in particular, free speech, which he claimed there isn’t any more of:

“There is no free speech, we don’t have free speech anymore. You know, it used to be automatic, free speech. We don’t have free speech. We have the opposite of free speech. And this is the beginning of communism when you hear that. This is the beginning of communism.”

In that brief rant Trump uttered the phrase “free speech” five times. Psychiatric professionals say that in some cases “this is because of problems with short-term memory caused by dementia.” Whatever the cause in Trump’s case, it is also a significant departure from reality. First of all, he is asserting that there is no free speech while he is freely speaking to an audience of his cult followers at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Trump has never been an especially ardent defender of First Amendment rights. He has relentlessly lambasted the free press as “the enemy of the people.” He has expressed regrets that he didn’t ban Facebook and Twitter when he had the chance. He has threatened that “Something has to be done” about CNN.

However, what makes this latest assault on free speech so preposterous is what he said immediately afterward. In another repetitive rant, Trump vilified critical race theory, a field of study that he has displayed his pitiful ignorance of before. At this rally he harangued that…

“We will ban critical race theory in our classrooms. We will ban that horrible, crazy critical race theory in our military. We will ban it from our workplaces. We will ban it from our federal, state, and local government. It will be banned. Permanently banned. And will never be allowed to come back again.”

Apparently Trump doesn’t like critical race theory. He does not like it in a house. He does not like it with a mouse. He does not like it in a box. He does not like it with a fox (News?).

What Trump does like is the notion of banning free speech with respect to teaching the history of race on America and the impact of systemic racism. And he explicitly expresses his intention, should he have the opportunity, to ban it permanently from every public forum that he could think of.

This should be of concern to every American who values the Constitution and the liberties it protects. If Trump would so openly admit that he would “cancel” the First Amendment, it goes without saying that the would do the same to any other part of the document that he regarded as obstructing his authoritarian aspirations. He’s already trying to subvert the democratic process, with the help of his Republican Party confederates. But he – and they – must never get the chance to carry out their defiling of America’s constitutional republic.

Trump's rally in Iowa winds down with a bonkers rant about critical race theory pic.twitter.com/yBRsKiMKOx

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 10, 2021

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

Trump-Fluffing Network OAN Loses Appeal of Defamation Lawsuit Against Rachel Maddow

Posted by Mark NC on August 18, 2021 at 11:31 am. 2 Comments :

In September of 2019, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was sued by the network that is America’s most worshipful mouthpiece for Donald Trump and radical right politics, One America News (OAN). The suit charged Maddow with defamation because she accurately reported the network’s association with Russian connected media. From the start it was a meritless case that had no hope of success.

OAN’s lawsuit was triggered by a segment on Maddow’s program that revealed that an OAN correspondent, Kristian Rouz, also reported for the Kremlin owned and operated network, Sputnik. Maddow correctly observed that…

“In this case, the most obsequiously pro-Trump right-wing news outlet in America really literally is paid Russian propaganda. Their on-air U.S. politics reporter is paid by the Russian government to produce propaganda for that government.”

In May 2020, the case was thrown out by a U.S. District judge who ruled that “there was no set of facts that could support a claim for defamation based on Maddow’s statement.” In support of that opinion the judge noted that OAN never actually alleged that the facts were defamatory or even that they were in dispute. The ruling affirmed Maddow’s protections under the Constitution’s First Amendment, stating that her commentary consisted of allowable opinion based on truthful and verifiable information.

Now OAN has lost their appeal of that ruling in a federal appeals court. What’s more, OAN has been ordered to pay $250,000 to MSNBC for legal fees. According to the Daily Beast…

“Fringe right-wing network One America News lost the appeal of its defamation suit against MSNBC and star host Rachel Maddow on Tuesday, with a panel upholding a previous federal court ruling against OAN that required them to pay $250,000 of the defendants’ legal fees.

“OAN, owned by Herring Networks, initially sued Maddow for $10 million in July 2019 after the MSNBC star said on her show that the Trump-boosting network is “paid Russian propaganda,” calling her remarks ‘malicious and utterly false.'”

Why OAN ever sought to file this suit in the first place is curious. They knew that their “reporter” was a Russian Sputnik stooge. They knew that Maddow merely reported that fact. And considering the torrent of falsehoods that are broadcast on OAN everyday, you would think they they would be hesitant to draw attention to their unsavory relationship with Russian shills.

Furthermore, OAN has been disseminating Russian propaganda in their regular programming by latching on to Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him. That’s precisely the same narrative that Russia uses to undermine faith in American democracy. Their extremism has gone so far as to actually call for the execution of Trump critics.

This failed lawsuit by OAN is not their only legal tribulation. They are also being sued by Dominion voting Systems for defamation in a multibillion dollar case that includes Fox News as a defendant.

OAN is well aware of the legal jeopardy they face, as they demonstrated when they ran a hysterical “disclaimer” prior to a program featuring the MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell, asserting that he had “Absolute Proof” of election fraud. He didn’t. And yet, OAN is still embracing Lindell and Trump and their election lies. This is going to cost them bigly before it’s through.

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

CNN’s Jim Acosta Fractures Fox News Fascist Fanboy and Trump-Fluffer, Tucker Carlson

Posted by Mark NC on August 7, 2021 at 4:56 pm. 3 Comments :

This past week Fox News Senior White Nationalist, Tucker Carlson, made a pilgrimage to Hungary to curtsy obediently before its self-proclaimed dictator, Viktor Orban. Carlson displayed his sickly adoration as he performed PR duties for Orban’s oppressive regime. It was a shameful exercise in subservience to a notorious totalitarian strongman.

On Saturday, CNN’s Jim Acosta reported on Carlson’s trek to the totalitarian dystopia with some poignant clips of Carlson’s commentaries while he was there. Acosta and his guests. Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Oliver Darcy, had some cogent insights, but it was Carlson’s own words that tell the story of his noxious anti-democratic and even anti-American obsessions. The entire video clip of the segment is posted below, but what follows are Carlson’s chilling remarks and pro fascist views.

Acosta introduced the first clip saying that “The Soviet Union used to use gullible foreigners to spread their propaganda, but this seems different. Tucker knows exactly what he’s doing.” And Carlson said that…

“if you care about western civilization and democracy and family, and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions, you should know what is happening here right now. In the face of great international pressure – they called him all kinds of names, the EU called what he was doing illegal – but he did it anyway. He built a wall. We said to a Hungarian minister who was standing there, ‘It’s hard to believe that that’s your policy. When you come here illegally you’re just escorted out politely?’ And he said quote, ‘We’re a serious country.’ How embarrassing to be an American in a conversation like that.”

Darcy pointed out how outraged Carlson and the rest of right-wing America would be if Michelle Obama, for instance, had gone abroad and told an authoritarian dictator that she was embarrassed to be an American. But Carlson has no problem exhibiting his shame. Nor does he mind portraying Hungary as “democratic,” despite the fact that Orban has effectively assumed total control for life. Acosta then introduces another clip of Carlson praising the state controlled media of Hungary…

“Let’s say you lived in a big American city and you decided to loudly and publicly attack Joe Biden’s policies. His policies on immigration or COVID or transgender athletes. If you kept talking like that you would likely be silenced by Joe Biden’s allies in Silicon Valley. If you kept it up you might very well have to hire armed body guards. That’s common in the U.S. Ask around. But it’s unknown in Hungary. Opposition leaders here don’t worry that they will be hurt for their opinions.”

WTF? Carlson is actually attacking Joe Biden’s policies in these clips. And his confederates on Fox News do so every hour of every day. Not only have they not been silenced, they are the number one rated cable news network. As for the need for Hungarian critics to hire body guards, Carlson is partly correct. There aren’t any government critics who need to do that. But only because there aren’t any government critics allowed. As Ben-Ghiat noted, over 500 media media outlets “donated” their assets to a foundation run by Orban’s allies. There could never be a Fox News taking shots at the government the way they do in the U.S. Carlson is deliberately covering that up. But then he goes off on this fantasy rant…

“‘Oh, but he’s a fascist,’ scream people who are happy to imprison non-violent political protesters in Washington. ‘Oh, there’s no press freedom,’ say people who support the overwhelming censorship in the American media. ‘He’s bad!’ They haven’t accused him rigging elections yet. Maybe that’s too much even for them.”

What Carlson is referring to as political prisoners are the insurrectionists who attacked Congress on January 6th. He regards them as non-violent, despite their having broken through doors and windows, injured more than 100 police officers, and chanted their intentions to kill Nancy Pelosi and hang Mike Pence.

Furthermore, you have to wonder what Carlson is talking about when he says that there is “overwhelming censorship in the American media.” If that were true, he wouldn’t be able to say it on a highly viewed television network. Additionally, Carlson mocks those who point out that Hungary does not have a free press. He might want to refer to the study by Reporters Without Borders as reported by Voice of America…

“A press watchdog group, Reporters Without Borders, named 37 world leaders Monday as media ‘predators’ who ‘crack down massively’ on press freedom, including for the first time a Western European leader, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. […] The watchdog group said oligarchs close to Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party controls more than 80% of the media in the country, while private media is discriminated against and characterized as publishing ‘fake news.'”

Acosta closed by saying of Carlson’s Hungarian PR junket that “It’s very concerning. And I wonder where he’s going next. Maybe to Moscow to do an infomercial for Vladimir Putin. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” Which pretty much says it all. Except that Tucker Carlson is an unpatriotic, anti-American, traitor to his country and no decent network would keep him on the air. Which explains why he’s on Fox News.

Discussing @TuckerCarlson's week-long infomercial for Hungary's authoritarian leader with @ruthbenghiat and @Acosta. pic.twitter.com/tujyX6waBB

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 7, 2021

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

Hannity and Dershowitz Display Their Utter Ignorance and Disrespect for the Constitution

Posted by Mark NC on July 8, 2021 at 11:53 am. 6 Comments :

On Wednesday Donald Trump announced that he intends to file a lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter, Google, and their executives for not allowing him to disseminate dangerously inflammatory lies. It’s a laughably pathetic legal stunt populated by a clown show of disreputable attorneys making preposterous arguments.

Trump’s lawsuit has been recognized by most legal experts as a frivolous abuse of the court system that is aimed more at fleecing his cult followers than prevailing in court. But undeterred by rational legal analysis, Fox News jumped eagerly into supporting Trump’s futile legal antics. On Wednesday evening Sean Hannity invited Alan Dershowitz to comment on the litigation. Dershowitz was a member of Trump’s impeachment defense team, so his prejudices and intellectual deficiencies are apparent. However, he was truly skirting the edges of coherence when he engaged in this exchange with Hannity:

Hannity: Seems like a strong case. But obviously nothing is a slam dunk.
Dershowitz: This is the most important First Amendment case of the 21st century, and it’s important because it pits freedom of speech on the one hand against the First Amendment on the other hand. That may sound paradoxical, but remember, it’s the high tech giants that are banning freedom of speech. They are censoring. But they are claiming the right to do so under the First Amendment. So they’re using the First Amendment as a sword against freedom of speech.

Dershowitz: This is the most important First Amendment case of the 21st century pic.twitter.com/7FNIoo1s1f

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 8, 2021

First of all, Hannity’s assertion that Trump has a “strong case” is contrary to reality. Not only does the case fail on legal grounds, it was filed in in the wrong jurisdiction – Florida rather than California – and may be dismissed on that alone. That’s just more proof that this is a charade for profit and that Trump and his lawyers don’t have any real intention of winning.

As for Dershowitz, he is making it hard to believe that he was ever regarded as a constitutional scholar. He began his remarks by portraying the case as “the most important First Amendment case of the 21st century,” when it isn’t actually a First Amendment case at all. For it to be a First Amendment case there would have to be government involvement in suppression of free speech. But Trump’s targets are all private companies. Trump’s lawyers are trying to claim that the social media companies are “government actors,” but that’s an imaginary label with no legal validity.

Where Dershowitz goes off the rails entirely is the nonsense that the “high tech giants” are claiming First Amendment protection to censor Trump. They are not. They have never asserted a First Amendment protection because they aren’t being suppressed by the government. What’s more, they have every right to monitor what appears on their websites. By Dershowitz’s standards, I should be able to force Fox News to give me airtime every night.

Furthermore, they are not “banning freedom of speech.” Trump, as he has said himself, has many opportunities to express himself, some of which he has claimed are superior to the companies he’s suing. “I’m really getting the big word out,” Trump bragged, “because we’re doing releases. And every time I do a release it’s all over the place. It’s more elegant than Twitter.”

Once again, Trump opens his big mouth and undermines his own arguments. In fact, his “releases” are actually undermining the entire premise of his lawsuit. Every time he makes incendiary statements about how the “Radical Left Democrats“ will “further DESTROY our Country,” and that the 2020 presidential election was “disgraceful and corrupt“ and “RIGGED and STOLEN,” he’s affirming the decisions by the social media platforms to remove his violence inciting account. So the more he keeps talking, the better. (Geez, I never thought I’d say that).

And meanwhile…

Psaki: I think it’s safe to say that the President spends a lot less time obsessing over social media than the former President pic.twitter.com/ccjLdQ9vBA

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 8, 2021

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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