Election

President Who? Fox News and Mitch McConnell Still Don’t Acknowledge that Trump Lost

Posted by on February 26, 2021 at 8:41 am. 1 Comments :

Last November Joe Biden decisively won the presidential. He drew over eight million more votes than the loser Donald Trump, and a sweeping electoral college victory of 306 to 232. But despite that conclusive result, Trump spent months spewing incendiary allegations of an allegedly “stolen” election. His tirades were unarguably responsible for the deadly riots that occurred at the Capitol on January 6th.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

Now, even after widespread condemnation of Trump and his insurrectionist brigades, even after Biden’s inauguration, Trump and his Republican cult disciples continue to pretend that Biden is an illegitimate president and that Trump is the rightful head of state. And naturally, Fox News is enabling that delusional hero worship. Sean Hannity, tucker Carlson, and other Fox hosts routinely refer to “President” Trump, while dismissively calling the actual president “Biden” or simply “Joe.” It’s a deliberate attempt to belittle President Biden, while feeding their audience’s fantasy that Trump remains on what they must believe is his throne.

Case in point: On Thursday Fox’s chief political “news” anchor, Bret Baier, interviewed the Senate’s Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, and engaged in this bizarre exchange:

McConnell: There’s no incumbent. And fun for you all to cover.
Baier: If the President was the Party’s nominee, would you support him?
McConnell: The nominee of the Party? Absolutely!

First of all, notice that McConnell, without challenge, said that in the 2024 presidential election there would be “no incumbent.” That would only be true if Biden chooses not to run for reelection. But there’s no way that McConnell know that now.

More to the point, notice that Baier’s question addresses whether McConnell would support “the President” if he were the Party’s nominee. Well, the President is Joe Biden. While etiquette would permit the use of “President Trump,” the meaning of “the President” is always the one currently in office. So was Baier asking if McConnell would support Biden if he decided to run as a Republican? Of course not. Baier was just casually – and dishonestly – referring to Trump as the current president. And McConnell didn’t blink in replying as if he thought the same thing.

This isn’t a trivial rhetorical glitch. They are both pretending that Trump is still president and that Biden is a villainous usurper. It is the same sort of purposeful deceit that produced the violence in D.C. by Trumpian loyalists seeking to restore him to his rightful place by any means necessary.

It should also be noted that McConnell’s expression of support for Trump were he the GOP nominee in 2024 is an astonishing admission that there are absolutely no consequences for the treasonous behavior of Trump. And that’s not just the opinion of disgruntled Democrats. After voting to acquit Trump in the Senate Impeachment hearing, McConnell actually admitted that Trump was guilty because “He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored.” McConnell elaborated saying that…

“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

That’s the guy for whom McConnell just declared his support. And the support for Trump by McConnell, along with a frightful majority of Weak-minded, obedient, Trump-obsessed Republicans, almost ensures more of the hostilities that Trump incited. It forgives his transgressions and enables his most dangerous followers among the racist, seditionist, anti-democratic hordes who continue to articulate threats to civil society.

And that’s what’s wrong with today’s Republican Party. It’s a personality driven cult. It is totally devoid of principle or ethics. It is addicted to the lies and propaganda of Fox News. It is wholly devoted to the maintenance of power. And nothing – not the interests of the people, or the welfare of the nation, or sustaining the Constitution and democracy – nothing else matters to them.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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.

Pence Aide on D.C. Riot: Trump Got ‘Bad Advice’ and Was Dumb Enough to Take It

Posted by on February 21, 2021 at 10:28 am. 4 Comments :

The apologists for Donald Trump scattered furiously to defend him after the January 6th attack on Congress by the Trump Insurrectionists. Some said that he didn’t overtly incite the riots by telling his cult followers to engage in violence. Others said the rioters were actually Antifa provocateurs disguised as MAGAts. Both of those excuses have been thoroughly contradicted by the facts.

Mike Pence, Donald Trump

On Sunday morning there was a new justification offered to explain Trump’s responsibility for the assault that resulted in at least five deaths and many more injured. Not to mention the stain on American democracy by people who hate the very thought of it. Marc Short, the former chief of staff to Mike Pence, was interviewed on CNN and asked about Trump’s inflammatory behavior that led to the riots. He replied that…

“I think, unfortunately, the President was getting bad advice from people who had articulated that the Vice-President would have some sort of extraordinary powers that had never been used before in the history of our country during Electoral College meetings and certifications by Congress. So that’s what we were heading into on the 6th [of January]. But I think that the Vice-President knows he swore an oath to the Constitution and was gonna fulfill that.”

This answer serves a dual purpose. First, it’s an attempt on Short’s part to absolve his former boss and Trumpy lapdog, Pence, of any liability. But more significantly, Short is trying to place the blame for Trump’s months-long incendiary and seditious rabble-rousing on unnamed “advisers” leading Trump astray.

The problem with this weaselly strategy is that it ends up holding no one accountable. But even worse, it implies that Trump is so stupid that he took advice that was legally preposterous and manifestly unconstitutional. Trump’s stupidity will not come as a shock to anyone. But the fact that Pence’s top aide is proposing it to vindicate Trump reveals that the Trump contingent has run out of plausible excuses.

In the meantime, Another Trump flunky, Republican minority whip Steve Scalise, continues to perpetuate the Big Lie that sparked the Trump Insurrection in the first place. After all the time that has passed – and the evidence that has been revealed – Scalise still can’t say without qualification that Joe Biden was elected legitimately. This is the sort of dangerous rhetoric that will fuel the next series of riots.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

Watch the Hysterical Disclaimer For the MyPillow Guy’s ‘Absolute Proof’ Doc on OAN

Posted by on February 5, 2021 at 1:17 pm. 5 Comments :

Just when you thought that the Charred-Core Wingnut Contingent of the Trumpian Republican Party couldn’t get any more distant from reality, they introduce their new star, MyPillow’s Mike Lindell, to prove just how massively you underestimated them.

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Donald Trump, Mike Lindell, MyPillow

Lindell had been promising for months to release a damning exposé of the rampant election fraud that he uncovered. He swore that it would blow the lid off of the Democratic cabal that conspired to steal the election from Donald Trump and deliver it to China’s man in Washington, “Sleepy” Joe Biden.

Finally the day has come when Lindell’s investigative bombshell was released to the public. And the best that could be said for it is that it will produce a better night’s sleep than the lumpy pillows he’s selling. Like the MyPillow scam, the “Absolute Proof” documentary is false advertising, It’s missing a key component that is featured in its title: Proof!

The propaganda video aired on the ultra-rightist One America News Network (OAN). But even the Trump-fluffing extremists at OAN were spooked by the content and its utter lack of factual basis. They are surely aware of the $2.7 billion lawsuit that was just filed by Smartmatic against Fox News. So OAN preceded their “special” with a long and brutal disclaimer:

“Michael James Lindell has purchased the airtime for the broadcast of this program on One America News (“OAN”) network. Mr. Lindell is the sole author and executive producer of this program and is solely and exclusively responsible for its content.

“The topic of this broadcast is the 2020 election. OAN has undertaken its own reporting on this topic. This program is not the product of OAN’s reporting. The views, opinions and claims expressed in this program by Mr. Lindell and other guests, producers, presenters or advertisers are theirs and theirs alone and are not adopted or endorsed by OAN or its owners. In particular, OAN does not adopt or endorse any statements or opinions in this program regarding the following entities or people: US Dominion, Inc. (and any related entities); Smartmatic USA Corp.; Brian Kemp; Brad Raffensperger; or Gabriel Sterling,

“Further, the statements and claims expressed in this program are presented at this time as opinions only and are not intended to be taken or interpreted by the viewer as established facts. The results in the 2020 presidential election remain disputed and questioned by millions of Americans who are entitled to hear from all sides to help determine what may have happened.”

The first thing of note here is that OAN sold the time to air this nonsense to Lindell. Legitimate news networks do not sell their air time to outside parties. Especially not to biased purveyors of lies and propaganda.

Th second paragraph is wholly intended to indemnifying OAN from lawsuits for libel and defamation. However, for that purpose it is utterly insufficient. A “news” network cannot defend itself from litigation if they air a program that calls your mother a prostitute, simply by stating at the outset that it isn’t their opinion. And OAN is demonstrating consciousness of guilt by identifying the victims that they know are being libeled.

Finally, OAN is making a farce of the presentation they are airing by admitting that the documentary entitled “Absolute Proof” is “not intended to be taken or interpreted by the viewer as established facts.” So why not call it “Absolute Bullsh*t” or better yet, don’t air it all?

There is nothing subtle about Lindell’s flagrant dishonesty. He says in the video that…

“The biggest thing against humanity and our country is this attack through these machines. they got – this opened up – this revealed – the machines to where we’re at right now. So what you’re gonna watch during this show is 100% proof that the big thing was the theft by these other countries that came in to attack our country through these machines that are made to steal elections.”

No wonder OAN is so scared. They are already the subject of a lawsuit by the Dominion voting technology company for defamation. Now they are just making things worse by giving Lindell a platform to spread more defamatory comments. And they can hardly pretend that Lindell’s views and their own are not in sync. OAN has aired numerous reports that make exactly the same charges against Dominion. For instance…

“It’s becoming glaringly apparent that Donald Trump absolutely crushed Joe Biden in the November election. We’ve learned enough about the Dominion machines and software to know that it is intentionally hackable, fixable. It monitors the spread of votes to alert of the needed additional votes and a host of other illicit election activities. The Democrats and never-Trumpers installed the Dominion voting system in key locations with the intent to rig elections.”

OAN also aired a multi-part program explicitly calling out Dominion that was called “One America News Investigates: “Dominion-izing the Vote” That puts the lie to their disclaimer saying that “The views, opinions and claims expressed in this program […] are not adopted or endorsed by OAN or its owners.” Having aired this program with this ridiculous disclaimer, it almost seems like OAN wants to be sued. And if so, they are very likely to get their wish.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

Read Smartmatic’s Gripping Introduction to Their 2.7 Billion Lawsuit Against Fox News

Posted by on February 4, 2021 at 2:46 pm. 6 Comments :

Following his decisive loss to Joe Biden last November, Donald Trump orchestrated a brazenly dishonest and dangerous campaign to stir the passions of his cult disciples. He sought to persuade them that the presidential election was stolen from him, that he won in a landslide, and that the rigged election was aided abetted by corrupt media and voting technology firms.

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Fox News Sad

Of course, none of those allegations were supported by evidence or reality. Trump’s efforts to malign the press, Democrats, and even Republicans who declined to embrace his lies, grew more intense as he repeatedly lost cases in court after court challenging the election results. He turned a common electoral defeat into a humiliating spectacle. And in the process, his accomplices found themselves in legal peril of their own.

The voting technology company Smartmatic has now filed a lawsuit against the proponents of Trump’s election fraud fictions. They include Fox News, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The introduction to the lawsuit reads like a captivating tale of political intrigue and depravity that rivals any great work of literature. So without further ado, here is that intro unabridged:

1. The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. The election was not stolen, rigged, or fixed. These are facts. They are demonstrable and irrefutable.

2. Defendants have always known these facts. They knew Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 U.S. election. They knew the election was not stolen. They knew the election was not rigged or fixed. They knew these truths just as they knew the Earth is round and two plus two equals four.

3. Defendants did not want Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to win the election. They wanted President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence to win re-election. Defendants were disappointed. But they also saw an opportunity to capitalize on President Trump’s popularity by inventing a story. Defendants decided to tell people that the election was stolen from President Trump and Vice President Pence.

4. Defendants had an obvious problem with their story. They needed a villain. They needed someone to blame. They needed someone whom they could get others to hate. A story of good versus evil, the type that would incite an angry mob, only works if the storyteller provides the audience with someone who personifies evil.

5. Without any true villain, Defendants invented one. Defendants decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story. Smartmatic is an election technology and software company. It was incorporated in Delaware and its U.S. operations are headquartered in Florida. In the 2020 U.S. election, Smartmatic provided election technology and software in Los Angeles County. Nowhere else. Smartmatic had a relatively small, non-controversial role in the 2020 U.S. election.

6. Those facts would not do for Defendants. So, the Defendants invented new ones. In their story, Smartmatic was a Venezuelan company under the control of corrupt dictators from socialist countries. In their story, Smartmatic’s election technology and software were used in many of the states with close outcomes. And, in their story, Smartmatic was responsible for stealing the 2020 election by switching and altering votes to rig the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

7. Having invented their story, and created their villain, Defendants set about spreading the word. In November and December 2020, Fox News broadcasted thirteen (13) reports stating and implying that Smartmatic had stolen the 2020 U.S. election. They repeated the story in articles and social media postings. Night after night, publication after publication, Fox News reached out to its millions of viewers and readers around the world with a story: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not win the 2020 election; Smartmatic stole the election for them.

8. Defendants’ story evolved over time as they claimed evidence had come to their attention supporting the story. The story came to consist of eight themes:

  • Smartmatic’s election technology and software were widely used in the
    2020 U.S. election, including in six states with close outcomes;
  • Smartmatic’s election technology and software were used by Dominion
    Voting Systems Corporation (“Dominion”) during the 2020 U.S. election;
  • Smartmatic’s election technology and software were used to steal the 2020
    U.S. election by rigging and fixing the vote;
  • Smartmatic’s election technology and software sent votes to foreign
    countries for tabulation and manipulation during the 2020 U.S. election;
  • Smartmatic’s election technology and software were compromised and
    hacked during the 2020 U.S. election;
  • Smartmatic was previously banned from being used in U.S. elections;
  • Smartmatic is a Venezuelan company that was founded and funded by
    corrupt dictators from socialist and communist countries; and,
  • Smartmatic’s election technology and software were designed to rig and fix
    elections.

9. Defendants’ story was a lie. All of it. And they knew it. But, it was a story that sold. Millions of individuals who saw and read Defendants’ reports believed them to be true. Smartmatic and its officers began to receive hate mail and death threats. Smartmatic’s clients and potential clients began to panic. The company’s reputation for providing transparent, auditable, and secure election technology and software was irreparably harmed. Overnight, Smartmatic went from an under-the-radar election technology and software company with a track record of success to the villain in Defendants’ disinformation campaign.

10. Smartmatic’s loss was Defendants’ gain. Fox News used the story to preserve its grip on viewers and readers and curry favors with the outgoing administration – one of their anchors was even able to get a pardon for her ex-husband. Ms. Powell used the story to raise money and enrich herself. Mr. Giuliani used the story to guarantee himself a flow of funds from the sitting President and to sell products. Defendants knew the story could not change the outcome of the election. It could, and did, make them money.

11. The story, of course, did more than just make Defendants’ money and jeopardize Smartmatic’s survival. The story undermined people’s belief in democracy. The story turned neighbor against neighbor. The story led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. Defendants started a fire for selfish and financial reasons and they cared not the damage their story caused to Smartmatic, its officers and employees, and the country.

That just about says it all. Fox News and the other defendants should be worried. The facts of the case are pretty airtight. And other defendants could be added as the litigation proceeds. Perhaps even Trump himself. Although he may also be busy untangling himself from his second impeachment trial where Democrats are asking that he testify under oath. And for Trump, that’s perjury waiting to happen.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

Rand Paul Gets Spanked as He Continues to Push the Big Lie that the Election Was Stolen

Posted by on January 24, 2021 at 10:42 am. 4 Comments :

To Republican deadenders still fighting to overturn Joe Biden’s decisive victory over Donald Trump, there are an endless stream of lies and alternative facts to disseminate. Never mind that doing so incited a violent insurrection in Washington, D.C., by Trump’s glassy-eyed cult disciples. To Republicans the battle to install an authoritarian dictatorship is an overwhelming compulsion.

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Rand Paul, Republican Brand

Confirmation of the GOP’s tyrannical aspirations was provided by Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. On Sunday morning he appeared for an interview on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. And he was as determined as ever to advance the Big Lie that the election was stolen from Trump. Stephanopoulos should have ended this interview after the first thirty seconds.

Paul didn’t add anything new in the six minutes that followed to his primary argument that consisted of two points: 1) There was massive fraud for which there is no evidence, and 2) Liberals are being mean to him by calling him a liar when he lies about there being massive fraud. (Full video below if you have the stomach for it).

Paul repeatedly whined that Stephanopoulos was calling all Republicans who pushed the Big Lie liars. But there’s a simple way to prevent being called a liar: Stop Lying! Paul never considered that option and throughout the interview continually reiterated the Big Lie that the election was stolen. That’s the same lie that resulted in the Capitol riots where five people died, dozens more injured, and American democracy fouled by the stench of Trump and Republican treason. Not that Paul cared about any of that, as demonstrated in this exchange:

Stephanopoulos: I want to begin with a threshold question for you. This election was not stolen. Do you accept that fact?
Paul: Well, what I would say is that the debate over whether or not there was fraud should occur. We never had any presentation in court where we actually looked at the evidence since most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, which is a procedural way of not actually hearing the question.

Notice that Paul does not accept the fact that “This election was not stolen.” Even worse, he expands on the lie by asserting that the matter was never adjudicated in court. It is patently false that “most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing.” In fact, very few were dismissed for that reason. Most of the cases – 86 of them – were thrown out after the evidence was presented and found to be wholly without merit. Paul went on to lie that…

“There were several states in which the law was changed by the Secretary of State, and not the state legislature. To me those are clearly unconstitutional.”

Actually, making decision of that sort is what secretaries of state were elected to do. And Paul is hallucinating if he sees anything in the Constitution that says otherwise. But he still was through lying…

“Were there people who voted twice? Were there dead people who voted? Were there illegal aliens who voted? Yes, and we should get to the bottom of it.”

There probably were some instances of invalid votes, just as there are in every election. But all fifty states, including those with Republican governors and election officials, certified the election results. Even Trump’s own Attorney General, Bill Barr, said there was no evidence of voter fraud that could have had any impact on the outcome. Yet that wasn’t enough for Paul either. He continued his lying…

“What I would suggest is that if we want greater confidence in our elections – and 75% of Republicans agree with me – is that we do need to look at election integrity, and we do need to see if we can restore confidence in the elections. […] Where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say that everything’s a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything.

First of all, the only reason that 75% of weak and impressionable Republicans agree with Paul and lack confidence in the election is because of Paul and Trump and the rest of the liars who have been hammering the blatantly false conspiracy nonsense that the election was stolen. If he wants to restore the people’s confidence in elections, he should try telling them the truth, that the election was fair and accurate.

Secondly, Paul’s contention that “there are two sides to everything” is pitifully idiotic. There are not two sides to facts. For instance, there isn’t another side to the fact that the Earth is round. And there isn’t another side to the facts that have been established by both Democratic and Republican officials that the election was not altered by fraud.

Paul’s reckless dishonesty is not just another incident of radical right-wing distortions of reality. The deadly consequences of his lies were seen by the world three weeks ago as his confederates sought to invade Congress and assassinate its members. People like Paul need to be held accountable and expelled from Congress for their deliberate and dangerous deceit. And the determination of these cretins to continue to spread their lies makes the impeachment conviction of Trump all the more necessary in order to preserve the integrity of our democracy.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

Cue Trump Meltdown: Biden’s Inauguration Drew Millions More Viewers than Trump’s

Posted by on January 21, 2021 at 2:40 pm. 1 Comments :

UH-OH. Someone better check in on Donald Trump. If he gets wind of this news he’s likely to suffer what doctors call an MSHE (Massive Spontaneous Head Explosion).

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Donald Trump TV Set

The preliminary Nielsen Ratings for Joe Biden’s inaugural swearing in ceremony significantly surpassed those of Trump’s. And that’s despite the challenges facing this inaugural. With the constraints put on it by the COVID-19 pandemic that prohibits large gatherings of groups, and the security issues created by Trump’s Seditionist Brigades, Biden still managed to crush Trump in the contest that matters to him more than anything else: TV ratings. Variety reports that…

“The inauguration of President Joe Biden won significantly more viewers than President Donald Trump’s 2017 ceremony, per early Nielsen figures.

“Approximately 39.87 million people watched the half-hour swearing-in ceremony over the nation’s six major TV-news outlets, according to Nielsen, compared with an average of 30.6 million viewers for the 2017 event.”

UPDATE: To make matters worse from Trump’s perspective, CNN, the network he repeatedly maligned as “fake news,” drew the biggest audience. Fox News came in dead last, declining a whopping 77% from their 2017 inauguration coverage.

Trump should actually be used to this by now. And not just because he lost to Biden by more than seven million votes in the 2020 presidential election. He previously lost to Biden in the ratings for their party convention acceptance speeches:

“President Trump’s Thursday night convention speech making the case for his reelection was lower-rated than his challenger Joe Biden’s speech one week ago, according to overnight Nielsen ratings.

“About 23.8 million viewers watched coverage of Trump’s RNC address across thirteen cable and broadcast networks, down from 24.6 million viewers who watched Biden’s DNC address on twelve of those same networks.”

And Trump also lost to Biden during the campaign when they had dueling town halls:

“Biden drew 12.7 million total viewers on the Disney-owned network, while Trump drew 10.4 million in the same 9-10 p.m. time slot on NBC. Across the entire runtime, the Biden town hall averaged 12.3 million viewers. In terms of the fast national 18-49 demographic, Biden is comfortably on top with a 2.6 rating to Trump’s 1.7.”

This will probably hurt Trump nearly as much as losing the election. After all, the old reality TV game show host has always regarded television ratings as “the real polls.” And yet, somehow he always manages to come up short there as well.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

President Biden Embraces Unity While Fox News Incites Fear and Division

Posted by on January 20, 2021 at 12:59 pm. 3 Comments :

The inauguration address by Joe Biden was a striking departure from the last inaugural address that focused morbidly on “American Carnage.” Who could have imagined how prescient that dark portrait of a broken nation was at the time Donald Trump painted it? If he was successful at anything, it was at achieving – temporarily – the dystopian vision he embraced even onto the very last minutes of his term.

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Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

Pres. Biden, on the other hand, delivered a speech (video below) that contained the sort of soaring rhetoric that his critics assert he is incapable of. He began with a triumphant nod to the failed Trump Insurrection that took place just two weeks ago, saying that “Democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.” And Biden closed saying that “Together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not division.”

The dominant theme of Biden’s speech, like his campaign, was unity. It’s a word that he used eleven times in the unusually brief address. He was clear-eyed about the challenges that our nation faces, and he recognized that…

“To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy, unity. Unity.”

Likewise, Biden was well aware of the idealistic tone of his theme, saying that…

“I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days. I know that the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we all are created equal, and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart.”

However, those obstacles haven’t dulled Biden’s optimism. Just as he has throughout his career in public life, Biden put his faith in the human hunger for harmony, imploring that…

“History, faith, and reason show the way, the way of unity. We can see each other, not as adversaries, but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.”

Speaking of “bitterness and fury,” Fox News spent Inauguration Eve exhuming it in buckets. They are proving that it is their intention to become even more blatantly biased in the post-Trump era.

On Laura Ingraham’s Hour of Sour, she began the program with her baseless assertion that “Team Biden Turns Against America.” The segment led off with her ludicrous claim that the “left” believes that “America is an inherently evil country.” She came to that conclusion after seeing National Guard troops deployed in Washington, D.C. to prevent more violence like that caused by Trump’s Seditionist Brigades. Ingraham charged that the frightful military presence was the work of Democrats, despite the fact that they were ordered to deploy by Republican run Departments of Defense and Justice.

Even worse was Tucker Carlson’s White Nationalist Hour on Fox News. On Monday Carlson spent an hour trying to incite more violence. And Tuesday’s program was devoted to the proposition that the “Democratic Party is planning a war on half of America.” He babbled feverishly that…

“If you’re one of the many in our professional class who has made hating Donald Trump the very center of your life, this has got to be a pretty good day for you. You won. Your party now has control of everything. By tomorrow afternoon Donald Trump will be gone for good. You got exactly what you wanted. You should be thrilled about that. You should be celebrating. But they’re not celebrating. That’s the remarkable thing. No one in the Democratic Party seems happy tonight.”

If Carlson hasn’t seen the ecstatic celebrations of Democrats across the nation/world, he must be having severe delusions from having had to go cold turkey on Trump tweets for the past couple of weeks. More likely, Carlson is just being his abnormal, arrogant, and irrationally hostile self. Rather than observing the reality of tens of millions of Democrats rapt in joy, Carlson imagines that they are attacking Trump voters, saying that “These 74 million are, in fact, terrorists.”

To be sure, there are Democrats who rightfully believe that Trump and other Republicans who violated the law should face justice. It’s what Trump called “law and order,” but which he and his cult disciples now repudiate. That, however, is not an indictment of everyone who voted for Trump. That is a figment of Carlson’s diseased imagination.

Pres. Biden’s goal of unity is an honorable and worthwhile one. The nation needs healing. But healing can only occur when the wounds are treated and protected from further infection. That comes in the form of accountability. “Without accountability,” says Republican Rick Wilson in USA Today, “unity will be an illusion, an invitation to further, deeper, more dangerous division. With accountability, the nation has a genuine chance to come together and move forward.” And that means accountability for Trump as well as as his Sedition Caucus in Congress and media accomplices.

Returning to Biden’s speech, he covered some of what needs to be addressed with regard to the trust Americans will have for their politicians and the press going forward. It’s a critical issue that must not be swept aside in the quest for unity. It is, in fact, a requirement for unity:

“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated, and even manufactured. […] There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit.”

These are among the most profound thoughts of any presidential inauguration speech. Hopefully they will be heeded and applied to both Democrats and Republicans – as well as the media itself – as we recover from the lie-riddled landscape left by Trump and his abomination of an administration.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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 Plans His Own Ego-Soaked Farewell Party As His Approval Hits Record Low

Posted by on January 15, 2021 at 1:11 pm. 8 Comments :

In the few days left before Joe Biden is inaugurated the 46th President of the United States, Donald Trump is laying low, confined to the bunker in the White House. He has an empty calendar with no speeches, meetings, or Fox News interviews scheduled. So it’s likely that his last public address will the one he gave on January 6th, where he commanded his cult disciples to storm Congress, resulting in at least five deaths and his second impeachment.

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Donald Trump Rally, Sieg Heil

Trump has already announced that he will not attend Biden’s inauguration. At one point he was considering staging a counter event to compete with the official ceremonies and to launch his 2024 campaign. But that appears to have been abandoned. Now, as he becomes increasingly despondent, Trump may be planning his own farewell to the White House that he always considered a dump. As reported by CNN’s Jim Acosta:

What a sad, pathetic shell of an impotent former reality TV game show host. If Trump goes though with this it will be ready-made for mockery and serve as a pre-written satirical script for Saturday Night Live. It would be impossible to keep from laughing while watching the biggest loser, who has twice the impeachments of any other president, paying tribute to himself as he flees Washington.

Just picture the spectacle of Trump luminaries like Kayleigh McEnany, Stephen Miller, Roger Stone, and Rudy Giuliani (if Trump decides to pay him), lined up on either side of an orange brocade runway holding MAGA banners aloft, and “You Can’t Always Get Want You Want” playing in the background. Naturally, it will be covered only by Fox News, with Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo providing commentary to accompany a parade of celebrities including Scott Baio, Jon Voight, Roseanne Barr, and Ted Nugent.

Perhaps Trump will produce a video to recall his “accomplishments” of the past four years: Separating hundreds of children from their parents; erecting about four miles of wall on the southern border that Mexico didn’t pay for; befouling the environment; making healthcare less accessible and more expensive; alienating international allies; and killing nearly 400,000 Americans via his incompetent mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a record of failure that will surely stand the test of time.

Trump’s self-exalting parade of narcissistic obsession will come at a time when his popularity reaches a record low. He has never approached 50% approval, but as he departs he just sunk to a dismal 29% in the Pew Research poll. The same poll found that a sizable majority of Americans (68%) “do not want Trump to remain a major political figure in the future.” About 76% (including 52% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents) say that Trump “bears at least some responsibility” for the riots at the Capitol.

So it is in that light that Trump is anxious to throw himself a party to celebrate his own awesomeness. This is going to be received with the same thrill of being informed of a positive herpes diagnosis. And it will also be the prelude to the next chapter in Trump’s latest impeachment as the Senate prepares to take up the matter in the days following. If there’s one thing we can be certain of, it’s that Trump seems determined to make his exit from the world stage as humiliating as possible. Which is nothing less than what we expected.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

Fox News Clings to Trump’s Big Lie of Election Fraud that Fueled the Capitol Riots

Posted by on January 14, 2021 at 3:32 pm. 3 Comments :

A week ago several thousand Donald Trump cult disciples stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the constitutional duty of Congress to certify the results of the presidential election. These traitors terrorized members of Congress, their staff, and Capitol security. Five people died during the insurrection, and many more were seriously injured.

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Fox News, Terrorism

The impetus for this assault on democracy was Trump’s “Big Lie” that the election was stolen from him by some nefarious and massive Deep State cabal. Never mind that there is no evidence whatsoever of this alleged conspiracy. Just the allegation was sufficient to inflame Trump’s followers and produce a historic and tragic atrocity carried out by fatuous fools under the influence of flagrant falsehoods.

Within a week Trump was impeached for his role in inciting the riots, which he threatened would result in even more violence. He may be right. His cult is notoriously hostile and not known for their adherence to reason or facts. And it makes little difference that he posted a video asking to find common ground. With racist conspiracy crackpots? Not likely.

All of which makes what aired on Fox News Thursday morning more heinous and dangerous. Trump’s trade advisor, Peter Navarro, who has zero credentials to address these matters, appeared on Fox News for an interview with their Senior Trump-fluffer, Maria Bartiromo. The segment could only be described as a further incitement to violence (video below):

Navarro: What happened yesterday [the impeachment vote] was a travesty. The Democratic Party did violence to this country by attacking a president who I believe was legally elected on November 3. If the election were held today he’d be elected again. And if he runs in 2024 he will be elected then. And I think that’s what the Democrats fear. I’ve never been more pissed off in this place, and I think there’s 74 million Americans out there who voted for President Trump who feel exactly the same way.”

Notice that Navarro tries to linguistically associate Democrats with violence when all of the violence was caused by Republicans and Trump supporters. More ominously, he is regurgitating the very same “Big Lie” that Trump has been pushing about a “rigged” election, which is what triggered his supporters to commit terrorist crimes in the Capitol. This is a brazen attempt to incite more violence, just as Trump warned. Navarro then engaged in this exchange with Bartiromo:

Navarro: So I would say to these people on Capitol Hill, “Knock it off. Stop this.” Let the man leave peacefully with his dignity. He was the greatest jobs president, the greatest trade negotiator we’ve ever had in history. And this is just wrong what they’re doing.
Bartiromo: We know that there were irregularities in this election. We know that 70% of Trump voters have said we’re not buying this election. We think it was rigged. But get this, you cannot say that on social media. You will get banned.
Navarro: You can’t say it anywhere.
Bartiromo: You can’t use the word “irregularities.” And if you say there was fraud it’s absolutely outrageous. This feels more like communist China than it does America, that they have the ability to stomp out free speech.

First of all, suggesting that Trump has any dignity is just another big lie. What’s more, he is literally the worst jobs president ever. As for trade, he has only succeeded in imposing tariffs that have crippled American businesses.

Then Bartiromo returns to the election fraud lie, saying that “70% of Trump voters have said we’re not buying this election.” So what? Those are Trump’s dimwitted zealots whose opinions were formed by his hammering falsehoods into them. Of course they feel that way. That is not, however, the way the majority of Americans feel. They support his impeachment and removal from office.

Both Bartiromo and Navarro then make the absurd observation that you can’t say the election was rigged. Notice that they are both saying it on a national television network. Bartiromo goes further to compare her false allegations to the media in communist China. Once again, she’s making that charge on her own nationally broadcast TV show. The only plausible comparison that can be made in that regard is the comparison to how devotional and sycophantic she and her Fox News confederates are toward Dear Leader Trump.

Fox News seems to be doing everything in its power to exacerbate an already volatile situation. An analysis by Media Matters shows that Fox News has cast doubt on the results of the election nearly 800 times in the two weeks since Fox itself called the election for Joe Biden. They seem to be purposefully antagonizing Trump’s terrorist brigades. There just isn’t any other plausible explanation for their persistent dissemination of Trump’s lies. And if they keep it up, they will make sure that Trump’s prediction of more violence comes true.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. 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.

HUH? Trump Backers Oppose Impeachment Because It Would Upset Trump Backers

Posted by on January 8, 2021 at 2:42 pm. 19 Comments :

The calls for Donald Trump to be removed from office are coming faster and more furiously with each passing hour. A solid majority (57%) of the American people want Trump booted out of office immediately. There are even Republicans who have stated publicly that they support Trump’s impeachment or removal by the 25th Amendment of the Constitution. Clearly the nation has had enough. They don’t believe he is mentally fit to captain the ship of state, and they want him thrown overboard.

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Donald Trump Walking the Plank

Trump, meanwhile, has bunkered in the White House watching Fox News and tweeting incoherently. He is likely seeking out support from any quarter that can still stomach his madness and destructive behavior.

Sadly, there are some factions of anti-democratic cult disciples who continue to worship Dear Leader no matter how heinous his betrayal of America. Some of them are member of Congress who haven’t the courage to defy him. Take House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who told reporters that “Impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more.”

That is typical of the arguments being made now on Trump’s behalf. It is hardly logical, but it’s all they have left. They are saying that pursuing impeachment or the 25th Amendment would only create more division and inflame Trump and his cult. They say that Trump should get a free pass in order to facilitate healing and unity. The problem is that that suggests that unity is only possible by giving in to Trump in order to appease his supporters who are a distinct minority.

Why can’t we achieve unity instead by prosecuting Trump in order to appease the majority of the American people? It makes no sense whatsoever to accept the argument that the Trump side must be pacified or their feelings will be hurt and they’ll become even more violent. Succumbing to that bullstuff is, in effect, succumbing to the threat of violence. It would be like declining to prosecute Charles Manson because it would have upset Manson’s family. And after all, don’t we all want unity?

There is really only one path to heal the nation in the post-Trump era. We must hold the wrongdoers – especially Trump – accountable. There must be consequences for unlawful acts and deliberately seditious incitements to violence. That’s the only way the perpetrators can be constrained. And it’s the only way to deter future criminal demagogues and aspiring tyrants. It is, in fact, the best course for healing and unity because it brings everyone together in support if the democratic principles that America is supposed to stand for. Hopefully President-Elect Joe Biden will see it this way. There is some indication that he does. In a press briefing on Friday he said that…

“I was told on the way up here that [Trump] indicated that he is not going to show up at the inauguration. One of the few things he and I have ever agreed on. It’s a good thing him not showing up. […] Because he exceeded even my worst notions about him. He’s been an embarrassment to the country, embarrassed us around the world. He’s not worthy, not worthy to hold that office.”

Biden added that removing Trump from office is not his role. It is the business of Congress. So Congress, bring on the impeachment of Trump. And bring on the invocation of the 25th Amendment. Make Trump pay a price for his crimes. And make his accomplices regret having been so cowardly and servile and/or self-serving. Once Trump has been indicted, tried, and convicted, the nation can be proud of having lived up to its promise of justice for all, and the creed that no one is above the law.

NOTE: Twitter recently 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. And you can follow my alternate Twitter account here. 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.