Election

Elizabeth Warren Slams the Fox News ‘Echo Chamber’ of ‘Fear and Hate’ in Presidential Campaign Video

Posted by on December 31, 2018 at 11:35 am. 1 Comments :

On the precipice of a new year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has released a video (below) announcing that she is forming an exploratory committee to test the waters for a prospective presidential campaign. She is the first of what will likely be a big pool of Democratic hopefuls seeking to cast out Donald Trump in 2020 – if he makes it that far (Mueller?).

Elizabeth Warren, Fox News

Notable in her video was the fact that she didn’t mention Trump’s name once. That will surely drive him nuts. There’s nothing he craves more than hearing his own name in pretty much any context. But she concentrated on bread-and-butter issues of importance to America’s middle class families. For instance, she laid out a platform that directly addresses the threat of corporatism and income inequality:

“I spent my career getting to the bottom of why America’s promise works for some families, but others who work just as hard slip through the cracks into disaster. And what I found was terrifying. These aren’t cracks that families are falling into. They’re traps. America’s middle class is under attack. How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie.”

Warren went on to link the political class to the problems that Americans are experiencing. She noted that the one-percenters “enlisted politicians [and] crippled unions.” to achieve their self-serving goals. And she pointedly stated that “Today corruption is poisoning our democracy.” She may not have said Trump’s name, but he was ever-present in her remarks.

It was also encouraging to see that Warren wasn’t shy about holding Fox News accountable for their contribution to the decline of Western Civilization. She took on the wealthy elites and Fox News saying forthrightly that:

“The whole scam is propped up by an echo chamber of fear and hate designed to distract and divide us.”

While she spoke those words there were images of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Fox and Friends, and Laura Ingraham prominently displayed. She got in the whole primetime lineup, plus Trump’s favorite Fox News morning show.

This is the kind of fearless honesty that will be needed to beat Trump (or whatever GOP hack runs in his place) in 2020. You can rest assured that Fox News will there to advance the lies and hostility of the Republican agenda and defeat the champions of unfettered democracy who are fighting for the welfare of the majority of American citizens.

The Trump presidency has shown us that the GOP couldn’t care less about ordinary people, honest representation, or the rule of law. But it has also shown us that there are voters who are susceptible to flagrant deception and who are willing – even eager – to be lied to. They are the rubes that Fox News is designed to corral into the GOP camp. And the rest of us need to be alert and engaged in order to preserve our country and the democracy that it pioneered.

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

Fox News Freak Out: Host Says of Democrats that ‘We’ve Always Known they Were Socialists’

Posted by on November 25, 2018 at 11:55 am. 3 Comments :

Now that the 2018 election is over, and the “Blue Wave” has swept more Democrats into office than at any time since Watergate, the 2020 election is lining up at the starting gate. Democrats have much to be hopeful for considering the historically low approval ratings of Donald Trump (who has never managed to reach 50%) and the Senate map that has twice as many Republican Nationalists defending their seats as Democrats.

Fox News, Donald Trump Baby

This of course means that Fox News is already chomping at the bit to canonize Trump and malign Democrats. And nowhere more than Trump’s favorite Fox program, Fox and Friends, is the mudslinging perched at the ready to attack. On Sunday’s episode of the melodrama that Fox passes off as “news,” the “Curvy Couch” potatoes were on the edge of their sofa with excitement at the prospect of smearing those pesky liberals who won by a massive majority three weeks ago. They began by featuring a tweet thread by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) wherein he rejected the notion that Democrats would engage in a fight between moderates and progressives. But then the Foxies ignored that and rattled off their own bitterly partisan narrative.

Co-host Pete Hegseth demonstrated his low comprehension skills by insisting that the 2020 Democratic nominee for president is going to be “a far-left progressive.” Never mind that the Democrats could nominate noted conservative Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and the GOP would still label him as a far left radical. Republicans aren’t interested in honest assessments, only what they think will have a negative electoral impact. But then co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy (a former cast member on MTV’s The Real World, and wife of GOP congressman Sean Duffy) let loose what the GOP really believes (video below):

“A lot of people mocked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I think the moment she came out and proud as a socialist, and caused the other members of the caucus – all of them basically took their masks off and said ‘Yep. We’re there too.’ We’ve always known they were socialists. So I think what’s really important here is that 2020 is gonna be an honest election between socialism and American capitalism.”

Really? Campos-Duffy actually thinks that all of the Democrats who might run for president in 2020 are masked socialists? However, she and her Fox News comrades have known it all along. That’s actually an accurate representation of Fox’s long held bias that has earned them the State TV label that was recently affirmed by the discovery that Fox’s former president, Bill Shine, now works for Trump is being paid simultaneously by both.

What’s more, notice how Campos-Duffy characterizes capitalism as “American,” but leaves off any such judgment of patriotism when she mentions socialism. That’s typical of Fox News and the right who routinely ignore the fact that many of the core principles of American society are rooted in socialism. That includes everything from public libraries and schools to Medicare and Social Security.

Campos-Duffy went on to say that she hopes Democrats nominate a progressive, which she said “means socialist.” Co-host Griff Jenkins then chimed in to say that the 2018 election proved that there are no “blue dog” Democrats who are moderates or conservatives. And of course, Hegseth agreed saying that “You’re totally right. And there will be no more ‘code talk,'” by which he meant Democrats hiding their clandestine socialist conspiracy.

But they are deliberately misleading their willfully ignorant audience. The Democratic Party is far more diverse in every way than the Republican Nationalists, and that includes political ideology. In fact, there are even many right-leaning Democrats who Fox News has been crowing about for their opposition to Nancy Pelosi as the next Speaker of the House. So they are contradicting their own narratives.

Whoever the next Democratic nominee for president is, it will be someone who far surpasses the flagrantly idiotic, racist, narcissistic, criminal, treasonous, rage-aholic, fear fetishist who is occupying the White House now. And if it’s someone who recognizes the benefits of broad ideologies – including socialism – it will be the will of the people that got that person the nomination. And, hopefully, the White House. It’s called democracy. Get used to it Republicans, because your authoritarian, gerrymandering, voter suppressing ways are coming to an end.

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

Trump is Panic Tweeting Incoherently with 9 Posts About Election Fraud Containing Zero Evidence

Posted by on November 9, 2018 at 2:51 pm. 3 Comments :

The United States of America now has a president who can be relied on to FREAK OUT whenever something doesn’t go his way. He is a bundle of frazzled nerves that jolt uncontrollably at the slightest sign of an adverse situation. He is an impotent weakling who seems to be proud of his masterful ability to whine. Indeed, he even bragged about being “the most fabulous whiner.”

Donald Trump

However, that isn’t exactly the sort of composed, level-headed leadership that one expects from an American president. To the contrary, it’s emblematic of a loose cannon who is likely to cause untold damage if left unchecked. And the midterm election a few days ago was the perfect opportunity to apply some real checks and balances on this inflamed hemorrhoid of a president. So that’s what the American people did.

Unfortunately, Trump is taking his losses with his usual bad and infantile temper. After first delusionally proclaiming that the election results were a “very big win” for him, he is now in a rage over a few late-breaking results that are common in election tabulations. The races for senator in Florida and Arizona are trending toward the Democrats. So is the race for governor in Florida. And being emotionally incapable of facing reality, Trump has embarked on a deranged outpouring of utter nonsense on Twitter.

On Friday Trump has posted (so far) nine tweets assailing the election results as unfair or corrupt or stolen or otherwise not being obedient to his whims. He began with a tweet that ominously announced a legal investigation:

For the record, there is no agency looking into any “corruption scandal.” Rick Scott’s desperate plea to his own Department of Law Enforcement was summarily rejected, with this conclusive statement:

“After the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Thursday night it would investigate two local election officials at the request of Gov. Rick Scott, the agency now says that because no voter fraud allegations were made, it is no longer pursuing an investigation.

“’What changed is that this morning we spoke with the Department of State and they indicated they had no criminal allegations of fraud,” FDLE spokesperson Gretl Plessinger told POLITICO in an email. ‘So, after speaking to them, we offered our assistance in the event any criminal allegations are identified.’”

But that wasn’t sufficient to stem the red tide of Trump’s anger and fear. So he blasted out a series of tweets that maligned Democrats and made totally unsubstantiated claims that were notably lacking in any facts:


Kemp didn’t win, and it’s time to finish counting the votes.


This is Trump’s attempt at humor that also implies that his pal Vladimir Putin is innocent.


Uh oh. Trump is sending Rudy Giuliani to Florida. That should scare those pesky, vote counting Democrats.


They found lots of Republican votes, you doofus. They just found more Democratic votes in the heaviest Democratic leaning district in the state. Does that confuse you?


You are the “embarrassment to our Country and to Democracy!” And, by the way, concessions are not binding and Nelson never conceded.


Wait. So there aren’t enough people there to make a difference? Thanks for just invalidating your own argument.


Little Marco to the rescue. The world didn’t care before he stepped in.


Trump doesn’t provide any link to this specious charge. But for him to cry about protecting democracy after complaining about counting votes is pretty good proof that he’s gone totally berserk.

Of course, what has triggered Trump is the potential that he will face increasingly challenging opposition from a much more Democratic Congress. Wannabe dictators chafe at anyone questioning their imaginary authority. True democracy is their mortal enemy. And Trump is the epitome of this totalitarian mindset. So he lashes out with these pitiful tantrums in the hopes that his adversaries will see how miffed he is and back down.

Good luck with that, Donnie. You would be better off concentrating on the imminent indictments that you and your crime family are so scared of, and are likely be served in the near future. Even your unlawful manipulation of the Justice Department and the Senate will not save you now.

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

Vladimir Trump Warns Fellow Republicans to ‘Say Goodbye’ If They Don’t ‘Embrace’ Him

Posted by on November 7, 2018 at 4:25 pm. 3 Comments :

The 2018 Midterm election has brought about the end of Donald Trump’s reign of unaccountability for his myriad of crimes. With the majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats finally have the authority to conduct investigations into Trump’s misconduct and illegal activities from financial corruption and self-dealing to collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice.

Donald Trump heil

Trump’s firing of Attorney General Jeff Session only makes matters worse. The only reason he would take that action on the day after the election is that he fears what special counsel Robert Mueller is uncovering and he’s laying the groundwork to fire, or otherwise hamstring, Mueller as well. This is the behavior of a wannabe dictator who feels the need to construct a bunker around himself for protection from the legal consequences of his nefarious activities.

As further evidence of Trump’s fear and determination to impose unquestioned loyalty, during a post-election press conference, Trump gave a bizarre recitation of the names of Republican representatives who lost their seats to Democrats on Tuesday. It wa a truly breathtaking display of ego-driven animus and blatant power madness in front of the whole world.

For Trump to whine publicly about his fellow Republican politicians who he said “didn’t want the embrace” of His Royal Assholiness, demonstrates the depth and severity of his mental illness. He is a sick individual who has a compulsive need for everyone around him to swear an undying allegiance to him and him alone. And to those who refuse that demand, they may suffer unpleasant fates for their disobedience. And of course, he takes a swing at the media that he despises as well. Trump reiterated his threats in a tweet saying that:

Say goodbye? Does he really believe that he has that power? Unfortunately, he does. And he also believes that losing the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is a “very Big Win.” His mind is so rotted with narcissism and conceit that he barely recognizes reality. And with that distorted perspective he threatens even those who share his political goals. It’s an extremist attitude that he shares with his buddies Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. But it’s an attitude that is decidedly un-American and will lead to his inevitable downfall. Which cannot come too soon, especially now that Mueller is under the gun.

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

Impeachable: Trump Threatens to Abuse His Power With Retaliatory Investigations of Democrats

Posted by on November 7, 2018 at 11:31 am. 1 Comments :

The midterm election for 2018 is now history. And the results are indeed historic. Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives at a critical time. Donald Trump has had two years to run rampant with illegal conduct by himself, his family, and his cabinet. That unfettered freedom to violate the law is now over. Democrats are already preparing to take affirmative steps to finally hold him accountable.

Donald Trump Impeach

And Democrats in Congress are not alone. Special counsel Robert Mueller has been quietly advancing his investigation into Trump’s collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. Trump has been quiet about this as well for the past month or so. And the reason likely has something to do with his abject fear of what Muellser is uncovering.

LATE UPDATE: Trump has just tweeted that he accepted the resignation (fired) Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That makes everything below even more troubling. Obviously Trump isn’t wasting any time trying to obstruct justice and remove any barriers to his tyrannical will.

Trump is also clearly frightened by the results of the election, and it’s showing in his first responses to them. Now that Democrats have the majority in the House they will have the chairmanships of every committee. That includes Adam Schiff at Intelligence, Elijah Cummings at Oversight, and even Maxine Waters at Financial Services. All of these new chairs, and many more, are dedicated to pursuing enforcement of the law. No wonder Trump is scared. So much so that he tweeted an overt (and unlawful) threat:

That is an unambiguous confession that Trump plans to abuse the power of his office. If he had any legitimate information regarding wrongdoing by Democrats, he would have already taken measures to persecute them for it. He is, in effect, admitting that he has no real charges to bring, but he will engage in deliberate judicial misconduct to retaliate against the honest representatives of the people for doing their job. It’s the perverse sort of political revenge that is generally employed by dictators.

At a Wednesday morning press conference, Trump reiterated his intention to abuse his presidential power by directing the Senate to participate in his campaign of vengeance. Under normal circumstances the Senate would have no part of serving as an attack squad for a corrupt White House, These are not normal circumstances and this Republican Nationalist Party controlled Senate would likely sign on. Without pretending that his actions were anything but personally vindictive against Democrats that he regards as the enemy, Trump told the press that:

“They can play that game, but we can play it better. Because we have a thing called the Senate. And a lot of very questionable things were done between leaks of classified information and many other elements that should not have taken place.” […] “And I think it would be very good for me politically.”

Once again, if there were any unlawful leaks of classified information, or any other legal misdeeds, why isn’t Trump or his Justice Department already investigating them? Because they exist only in Trump’s spiteful imagination. And what’s worse is that he doesn’t even have any shame about admitting that this would be a purely political ploy.

Also in the press conference, Trump threatened that any attempts to hold him accountable by issuing subpoenas would result in unspecified retaliatory subpoenas against unnamed Democrats. He added that his vengeance would mean that “government comes to a halt. And I would blame them.” And when asked if he would be able to work with Democrats in Congress while he was engaged in phony investigations of them, he angrily replied that “If they do that then all of this is a war-like posture.”

Remember, he’s talking about fellow Americans who were elected by citizens to represent them. Like the media that he calls “the enemy of the people,” Trump, in his warped and malignantly narcissistic brain, also regards duly elected members of Congress as his enemies. He is literally declaring war on constitutional servants of the people. That’s actually called a civil war – or treason. And before too long he’s going to find out that that isn’t a particularly smart move.

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

Fox News Dismisses Sean Hannity’s Unethical Appearance at Trump Rally as ‘a Distraction’

Posted by on November 6, 2018 at 10:57 am. 3 Comments :

This is a quick update to the story about Sean Hannity making an appearance with Donald Trump at Monday night’s cult rally in Missouri. Fox News finally issued a statement on Hannity’s violation of Fox’s policy. But it was a weak attempt to sweep the whole matter under the rug and fails to hold Hannity (or Jeanine Pirro, who also stumped with Trump) accountable.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

The entire statement from Fox said said that:

“FOX News does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. We have an extraordinary team of journalists helming our coverage tonight and we are extremely proud of their work. This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”

So this was merely “an unfortunate distraction” rather than an egregious breach of journalistic principles? And it merited only this powder-puff, wrist slapping that was more complimentary and prideful than punitive. What’s more, Hannity posted a brazenly dishonest tweet that incredulously claimed that his stage show was unplanned:

Yeah right. He was literally featured in the White House press release saying that he would be a “special guest.” at the rally. Is he trying to tell us that he was the only person who didn’t know that Trump would call on him (and Pirro) to speak? Maybe his dimwitted audience on Fox News will fall for that. But the rest of us are laughing our butts off.

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

UPDATE: A reporter from CNN asked some of Hannity’s colleagues about this and they are “outraged” that he stumped for Trump and that the company won’t do anything about it.

Sean Hannity Will Be Trump’s ‘Special Guest’ at a Rally, Violating Even Fox News’ Low Standards

Posted by on November 4, 2018 at 3:46 pm. 4 Comments :

Trump’s national campaign tour in support of his Republican Nationalist Party is reaching a fever pitch as we approach the last few days before the election. In a late breaking press release, Trump has announced that he will have two special guests joining him at his cult rally in Missouri: Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Of course Limbaugh and Hannity are not exactly a match for Oprah and Obama. But there are other contradictions in this turn of events that deserve attention. For instance, a few years ago Limbaugh soured on the GOP and promised to never carry water for the party again. Apparently he got over it.

A bigger problem is Hannity’s addition to this reality show lineup. That’s the same Hannity who Trump calls before beddy-bye every night. And this isn’t the first time that Hannity has unethically stumped for Trump. He was even admonished by his bosses at Fox News for it. If you can believe it, Fox News has some journalistic standards that are obviously rather low, but they exist. Or so we thought. Back in 2016 Fox rebuked Hannity for appearing in a Trump campaign video. This is what News Corpse published at the time:

Hannity taped a tribute to Donald Trump that appears in a new web ad. Curiously, he is identified only as “Sean Hannity, TV personality.” Not only did they leave out his Fox News affiliation, but they reduced him to the status of Kim Kardashian or Ryan Seacrest. In the clip Hannity unequivocally states his support for Trump and outlines his reasons why.

“One of the reasons I’m supporting Donald Trump this year is number one, he’s going to put originalists on the Supreme Court. People that believe in fidelity to the Constitution, separation of powers, co-equal branches of government. He’s a guy that will vet refugees to keep Americans safe. And of course he’s gonna build that wall. He says he’s gonna have Mexico pay for it. That’s fine, as long as we secure the country and, of course, we don’t want people competing for jobs. He said he will eliminate Obamacare, make us energy-independent, and as somebody who’s been a marksman since I’m 11 years old, protecting our Second Amendment rights are paramount to me.”

This list of right-wing tripe is typical of the propaganda that Fox and Hannity regularly dispense. Nothing in it varies from the conservative politics that dominate the network. What’s unusual is that Hannity delivers his testimonial in an official Trump advertisement. Along with fellow asshats like Ted Nugent, Hannity plants a wet kiss full on the mouth of his hallowed hero. Unfortunately, he failed to get permission from his Fox bosses before contributing his services. That reckless disobedience resulted in Fox News taking swift disciplinary action:

“We were not aware of Sean Hannity participating in a promotional video and he will not be doing anything along these lines for the remainder of the election season.”

Well, that ought teach him. While distancing themselves from Hannity’s impropriety, Fox firmly forbade him from further misconduct. And that appears to be the extent of his punishment. He wasn’t suspended. His pay wasn’t docked. There doesn’t even seem to be a demand to remove his segment from Trump’s ad. What’s more, they gave him permission to continue his partisan antics after the election.

This absence of consequences isn’t the least bit peculiar. Why would Fox News punish Hannity for doing in an ad what he does everyday on his program?

Everything written at that time applies perfectly today. Hannity is still a Trump-fluffing shill, and Fox News still doesn’t care about upholding any journalistic principles. Nothing changes for these dishonest, unethical propagandists who are now working for the State. Pathetic.

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

UPDATE: Both Fox News and Hannity made statements that he was only going to Missouri to interview Trump and would not campaign on stage with him. They lied. Not only did Hannity speak at the rally, but so did Fox’s Jeanine Pirro. More proof that Fox News is the State TV affiliate of the Trump White House.

UPDATE II: Fox News finally commented on this with a weak, meaningless statement saying only that it “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events” and that it “was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.” Addressed how? Fox doesn’t say. Hannity also posted a thoroughly dishonest tweet saying that his appearance “was NOT planned.” Yeah right. It was literally featured in the White House press release saying that he would be a “special guest.” Is he trying to tell us that he was the only person who didn’t know that Trump would call on him (and Pirro) to speak?

Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief: Trump Floats Fake MAGABomber ‘Stuff’ as Politically Motivated

Posted by on October 26, 2018 at 11:35 am. 3 Comments :

Friday morning there was good news out of Florida regarding the MAGABomber. Authorities have confirmed that a suspect, Cesar Sayoc, Jr, is in now custody. He is described as a Florida resident with ties to New York and a criminal past. And while that sounds a little like Donald Trump, it’s actually just a like-minded supporter with pro-trump, anti-media stickers plastered over most of his van. Now who would ever have guessed that?

MAGABomber, Donald Trump

Meanwhile, Trump himself spent the morning whining profusely about the sorry state of America and how everyone in it is out to get him. His latest tweetstorm is a prime example of the narcissism fueled state of rage that he is in virtually all the time. He began with this bit of crybaby bawling:

Apparently Trump is furious that the media can criticize the President “at will.” They didn’t even have to get official permission from the White House. What do they think this is? A democratic republic with a free press, or something? And the only reason that anyone blames him for the “current spate of bombs” is because he’s demonstrably responsible. Trump’s relentless and reckless attacks on his political opponents and the press have created an atmosphere that emboldens fringe characters like Sayoc. Trump complains that he is called “unpresidential” for criticisms. But the reality is that his criticisms are overtly hostile and explicitly advocate violence.

The next tweet shows just how unhinged Trump has become with regard to how the media has been reporting this domestic terrorism. Trump believes that it’s all about him and a plot to damage his presidency and the Republican prospects in the midterm election:

Trump leads off by gaslighting the nation with phony assessments of the state of the Republican campaign. If anything, the early voting is benefiting Democrats, as is the massive fundraising advantages that Democrats are enjoying. So Trump resorts to belittling the domestic terrorism by his supporter as “this ‘Bomb’ stuff.” It’s downright sickening that Trump’s reaction to mail bombs being sent to prominent Americans is to whine about the political ramifications, rather than the threat to human lives.

Furthermore, Trump’s complaint about a news story distracting from the election is absurd and hypocritical. He’s been demagoguing about the Central American refugees for weeks now, in an effort to influence his base of cult voters. Never mind that they are not expected to reach the U.S. border until at least a month after the election. By the way, the news is still talking about politics. Even Fox News.

Finally, Trump posted a laughably conspiratorial tweet about Twitter removing his followers and making it harder for new ones to join:

This is the sort of brilliant, expert analysis you might expect from Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, or Diamond & Silk. Which is almost certainly where he got it. And it isn’t the first time that Trump has ranted – with zero evidence – that he and other rightists were the victims of social media bias. He has even promised to stomp the boot of government down on Twitter, Google, etc., if they didn’t bend to his will.

Trump’s claim that the number of his Twitter followers has declined from a “Rocket Ship” to a “Blimp” is not supported by any documentation. Like almost everything else he says, it’s backed up by his big fat assumptions based on nothing but an overactive imagination. If anything, any declines are more likely attributable to the fact that more than half of his followers are fake (and probably Russian).

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

Throughout all of this blathering idiocy, Trump is failing any test of leadership by focusing the country on unity and a determination to make our politics more civil and our people safer. He hasn’t even reached out to the victims in this matter, which include two former presidents. He only sees these things in terms of how they affect him personally. But that’s been his modus operandi since even before he was President. So don’t expect him change or “pivot” to acting presidential. Any who still thinks that’s a possibility is terminally naive.

Trump Mindlessly Parrots Fox News Lies About ISIS Mixing with Migrant Refugee Caravan

Posted by on October 22, 2018 at 12:41 pm. 2 Comments :

One of the most frequent personal observations expressed by Donald Trump is his insistence that he is a bottomless vessel of boundless knowledge. He claims that he knows more about defense than his generals; more about climate than scientists; and more about the law than his army of lawyers. He may be right about the latter considering that Rudy Giuliani is the head of his laughably inept legal team.

Donald Trump Fox News

However, the evidence of Trump’s brilliance must be buried deeper than the Mariana Trench. He is wrong more often than a chimpanzee predicting the stock market. Although it’s hard to know whether his mistakes are due to common ignorance or, more likely, to flagrant lying. And so much of what he professes to know absolutely is just stuff he heard on Fox News, another disseminator of poorly manufactured fabrications. It’s a sign of his acutely shallow intellect that he relies so heavily on the alternative facts of a TV network staffed by proud foes of intelligence.

Nevertheless, that’s where Trump got his latest bit of bullpucky regarding the nearly 7,000 migrants marching toward the United States in hopes of escaping the poverty and violence in their home countries. Trump posted a tweet on Monday morning that was chock full of falsehoods with racist overtones:

Trump is so enamored of his ability to invent cute nicknames for the objects of his wrath that he came up with one for imposing crises. But the “National Emergy” that he’s panicking about is a figment of his overactive imagination. Especially the part about the “unknown Middle Easterners” allegedly mixing in. Trump appears to have absorbed this non-fact from the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. Co-host Pete Hegseth ranted incoherently about the migrant “caravan” in a segment that backed up Trump’s asinine proposal to deploy the military to confront peaceful, unarmed, refugee families. But the centerpiece of this nonsense was the allegation that members of ISIS were infiltrating the marchers (video below):

Hegseth: You got the president of Guatemala saying to a local newspaper down there just last week, they caught over a hundred ISIS fighters in Guatemala trying to use this caravan or other processes.
Steve Doocy: Are we sure that’s true?
Hegseth: He talked to their local newspaper, we don’t know it, it hasn’t been verified. But even one poison pill is too many in a caravan.

Virtually none of that is true. To begin with, President Jimmy Morales of Guatemala didn’t talk to a local newspaper. He made remarks at the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America, an event whose attendees included Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Secondly, President Morales was not talking about ISIS fighters caught in conjunction with the migrant caravan. In fact, the caravan had not even begun when Morales spoke at the Conference. Thirdly, there is no evidence whatsoever that any apprehensions of terrorists were ever made. And finally, in his remarks Morales said that the alleged terrorists had all been deported, in which case they would no longer be in the country or able to sneak into the caravan. Therefore, no National Emergy.

From that basket of nothingness, the ultra-conservative shills at Judicial Watch published a thoroughly false report that implied that Morales had revealed an ongoing effort by ISIS to clandestinely enter the U.S. by disguising themselves as migrants. That work of fiction was picked up by Fox News, and then blasted out by Trump to his millions of Deplorable Twitter followers. And to reiterate, none of it was true. But that didn’t stop Trump from doubling with another inane tweet:

Let’s just set aside the fact that Congress had drafted a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill, but Trump’s stubborness to compromise killed it. Now he’s imploring his cult followers to “think of and blame the Democrats” whenever they see refugees seeking asylum in America. Note that he doesn’t want you to think of the hardships they’ve suffered, or even the impact on the U.S. by their being granted asylum. He sees this a purely political matter and he’s exploiting these human tragedies to try to offset the expected Republican losses in the upcoming midterm election.

What’s worse is that Trump’s response to this is to threaten to cut off aid to the countries these refugees are fleeing. So the inhumane conditions that led to their exodus will now get exponentially worse and more of them will take the risks to escape. That’s the sort of thinking that can only come from someone steeped in ignorance and hatred. It’s the thinking of television pundits whose expertise is in celebrity gossip. And sadly, it’s typical of what America has been having to tolerate for as long as Trump has occupied our White House.

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

Trump Calls All Democratic Voters ‘Crazy’ Which After Whining About ‘Deplorables’ is Really Crazy

Posted by on October 21, 2018 at 10:44 am. 1 Comments :

There has never been a more divisive president of the United States than Donald Trump. He wakes every morning with the intent to demonize his fellow Americans and dehumanize those with whom he disagrees. Trump embraces the tactics of his fascist heroes who perfected the use of projected hate to marginalize his opponents and unite a rage-filled base of cult followers. And he employs infantile insults, nicknames, and the coarse rhetoric of bullies to achieve his ends.

Donald Trump Crazy

If you criticize Trump you don’t just have political differences with him. In his diseased brain you are a destroyer of everything virtuous, and are in league with Satan to destroy him personally. This is evident in the acutely hyperbolic extremes he goes to when describing any person or event. It’s always the “worst ever in history” rather than merely a different point of view. And it was evident in Trump’s recent cult rally in Arizona where he typically went berserk over the presence of Democrats in the country that he thinks should only be occupied by his most zealous fanatics (video below):

“Anybody that votes for a Democrat now is crazy. When you look at what’s coming up, you gotta be crazy.

Note that Trump isn’t talking about just some Democrats that he believes might have gone over some ambiguous line. He explicitly maligned as mentally defective “anybody that votes for a Democrat.” That’s an awfully broad condemnation for someone who lost the popular vote to 65 million Democratic voters. He’s saying that more than half the nation is insane. And judging by the expectations for the upcoming midterm election, that number is going to increase significantly. What’s more, this was a planned attack as is obvious by the pre-produced signs in his crowd.

What’s interesting is that there has been so little push back on these comments. Especially considering the heat that Hillary Clinton took when she characterized only a portion of Trump’s supporters negatively. In her now famous remarks tagging some of Trump’s most fervent devotees as “Deplorables,” she said that:

“You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. […] But that other basket of people are people who feel the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures; and they’re just desperate for change.”

She was actually being generous. The true percentage of Trump’s Deplorables is way more than half. But Clinton was sensitive to the fact that she was talking about fellow citizens and deliberately avoided painting them all with a broad, disdainful brush. That’s the sort of thoughtful consideration that Trump is incapable of. But he is fully capable of rank hypocrisy when it comes to slandering his foes and exalting himself. Take, for instance, his swipe at Clinton shortly after the Deplorable remarks:

So does Trump think that being a president for everyone means contemptuously disparaging more than half the country as crazy? Let’s face it, he never intended to be a uniting figure in the presidency. His entire campaign was built on hatred and bigotry. And he has carried that over into the White House. In his remarks immediately following the “crazy” talk he said that:

“The Democrats don’t care about what their extremist immigration agendas will do to your communities, your hospitals. How ’bout your hospitals are being overrun. Your schools. California, they wanna give you free education, free healthcare, open borders. I mean we’re gonna have ten million people move to California. This is the craziest thing. So here’s what we do. Let’s get these people out of there. There’s something wrong. They’re cuckoo.”

Oh my. Democrats are in favor of the American people having access to healthcare and education. Lock them up! Quick, before they become too healthy and smart to ever vote for a Republican again. But Trump wasn’t finished. He felt the need to make sure that his insults were directly aimed at the most vulnerable people, who he belittled in the racist manner to which he is accustomed:

“That’s why Democrats want to give illegal aliens free welfare, free health care and free education. Give them a driver’s license, next thing you know, they’ll want to buy them a car. Then they’ll say the car’s not good enough – how about a Rolls Royce. Democrats want to give illegal immigrants the right to vote.”

And Trump says that Democrats are crazy? This is all nonsense of the most ludicrous variety. None of what he’s saying is remotely true. It’s the blather of a reality TV reject who can only think in terms of childish smears. And Trump topped it all off by saying that “The Democrat Party has become too extreme and too dangerous to be trusted with power.” So Trump concludes his petulant tantrum by asserting the aspirations of a wannabe dictator who conserves all political power for himself. And the audience cheered. Talk about extreme and dangerous.

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