Election

Awww: Fox News Worries that Democrats Might Be ‘Blowing Their Chance to Beat Trump’

Posted by on July 2, 2019 at 11:11 pm. 1 Comments :

There’s nothing like an election to get conservative blowhards to shed some crocodile tears over what they see as the declining fortunes of the Democratic Party. Never mind that the last election in 2018 saw a “blue wave” that swept Democrats into the majority in the House of Representatives and made Nancy Pelosi Speaker. Republicans are never more sympathetic to the threat of Democrats losing voters than when the Democrats are actively and effectively beating up on the GOP. So naturally, right-wing politicos and pundits need to come out with their heartfelt advice to stop the Democrats from hurting themselves. How thoughtful.

Fox News, Donkey

On Tuesday morning, Fox News media analyst, Howard Kurtz, was interviewed by anchor Bill Hemmer about how dreadfully naive Democrats are for appealing to their own constituents, rather than kowtowing to Donald Trump and his cadre of Deplorables. The segment featured a chyron that read “2020 Dems Taking Extreme Positions on Key Issues.” And their examples of how the party is “lurching left” and “blowing their chance to defeat Trump,” were positions in favor of humanitarian treatment of refugees and support of Medicare for All – two issues that resonate with progressives and are wildly popular among Democrats and even many Republicans and independents.

This is a bold demonstration of political altruism on the part of Kurtz and company. Because who would know more about what’s best for Democrats than the staunchly Republican partisans on Fox News who spend most of their time viciously maligning and lying about the party? They nevertheless believe that they are perfectly positioned to give counsel to Democrats who might otherwise destroy their own electoral prospects by advocating for higher wages for workers, higher taxes for corporations and the wealthy, greater access to education, and addressing the imminent risks of the climate crisis. You know, the very issues that define the positive values of the Democratic Party, as well as the majority of Americans. But Kurtz is concerned because…

“What we can say is that some of these positions, way out on the left wing, things that nobody in the party would have said even in 2016, could be a vulnerability next year.”

Really? It’s funny that Kurtz is worried about what are actually mainstream positions that he ridiculously tags as “left wing.” But he doesn’t have a word to say about the radical right positions being taken by Trump and his Republican Nationalist Party. Doesn’t he think that incarcerating children in cages will blow Trump’s chances of being reelected? And what about Trump’s bizarre affinity for murderous dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un? And his hostility toward agreements that made America safer by curtailing the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea?

Isn’t the GOP lurching to the right by repeatedly cutting taxes for the rich? Aren’t they pandering to GOP fanatics by rejecting the Paris accords on climate change? Won’t Trump’s sabotage of ObamaCare and determination to end popular protections for preexisting conditions drive voters away? And then there’s his relentless pursuit of a useless, idiotic, vanity wall along the southern border that most Americans oppose.

Why is it that wingnuts like Kurtz always pretend to be concerned about where Democrats are on the ideological spectrum? They would never countenance Democrats offering such advice to Republicans. You’ll never see Kurtz, or anyone on Fox News asking if Trump is blowing it by pandering so obsessively to his dwindling, cultist base.

If anyone should be worried about blowing 2020, it’s Donald Trump. His approval ratings are in the basement. He is the first president in history who has never cracked 50 percent. His positions are unpopular. He is regarded as a lying loudmouth who doesn’t know what he’s talking about on any subject. Meanwhile, the motivation of Democrats to vote next year forecasts a historically high turnout. That isn’t exactly good news for Trump and his paid shills at Fox News. But not to worry. They will never see those danger signals as warnings to moderate their regressive fanaticism.

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

Trump Floats Ludicrous ‘Big Secret’ Theory for Obama Not Endorsing Biden

Posted by on June 25, 2019 at 12:51 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump’s opinion on the candidates in the Democratic presidential primary is about as useful as Bill Cosby’s dating tips. Trump is a notorious pathological liar who uses any opportunity to disparage his political foes as an invitation to spin lame, and often profane, fairy tales that have no relationship to reality. Why any reporter would ask him for his opinion on this subject is a mystery.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

Nevertheless, that’s what a reporter from The Hill did on Tuesday morning. Trump was asked about the prospect of facing Vice-President Joe Biden in the general election, and his response was typically shallow, insulting, and untrue (video below):

“How he doesn’t get President Obama to endorse him. There has to be some reason why he’s not endorsing him. He was the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. And how President Obama’s not endorsing him is rather a big secret.

“Then he goes and lies and said, ‘I asked the president not to endorse me.’ Give me a break. He’s embarrassed by the fact that Obama’s not endorsing him, so he goes out and says, ‘I asked President Obama not to endorse me.’ Well, he was trying to get the endorsement. So it could be that President Obama knows something. But there is something going on in that brain of his.”

The “big secret” is that former presidents, and most party leaders, never endorse candidates during a primary. It would be considered bad form to discriminate between members of your own party. So they generally remain neutral until a nominee is selected by voters, whereupon, they issue their endorsement. Were they to endorse one candidate, but another eventually wins the nomination, the nominee would be diminished as a second choice for not having had the original endorsement.

It isn’t surprising that Trump doesn’t know this, because it’s just one of the many things his universal ignorance encompasses. But what is a bit surprising is that he seems to forgotten that he refused to endorse his own vice-president, Mike Pence, when asked. During an appearance on his favorite Fox News morning show, Fox and Friends, he awkwardly babbled that “You can’t put me in that position. But I certainly would give it very strong consideration.”

So what is Trump’s “big secret” for not endorsing Pence? There has to be some reason why he’s not endorsing him. He’s the vice president. They seem to have gotten along. So it could be that Trump knows something. But there is something going on in that “brain” of his.

Trump is not the best person to bring up big secrets. After all, he has been fighting for years to keep his tax returns secret. Likewise his college transcripts. He buries reports by his own administration that reveal the dangers of climate change and the mistreatment of immigrant children. He pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to silence his mistresses. And he is currently prohibiting members of his administration, and other close associates, from testifying before Congress. You don’t think he has something to hide, do you?

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

Still Obsessed with Losing the Popular Vote, Trump Babbles Incoherently About Winning It

Posted by on June 23, 2019 at 12:03 pm. 2 Comments :

The United States of America is currently burdened with a president who suffers from a sever case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Donald Trump’s psychological impairments are obvious to objective observers and represent a clear and present danger to the welfare of the nation – and the world. He is utterly incapable of performing the duties of the presidency without placing his own interests before those of the people he is sworn to serve.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton

Trump’s raging ego and self-exaltation has been demonstrated time and time again in the two and half turbulent years that he has occupied the White House. He cannot admit mistakes even when the evidence is unarguably documented. He incessantly brags on his own behalf for “accomplishments” that don’t exist. Those include “resolutions” of problems that he created himself like a firefighter moonlighting as an arsonist. And he has repeatedly forced his subordinates to sit around a table and utter slobbering tributes to him in a perverse spectacle of supplication and sycophancy.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump continues to be plagued by one particularly humiliating failure. His historic loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election gnaws at him like a famished piranha. He can’t stop thinking about it, or lying about it. And that fetish reared its ugly head again in an interview with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press Sunday morning. The discussion was pure Trumpian bombast and delusion (video below):

Todd: You didn’t like the fact that you lost the popular vote. That bothered you didn’t it?
Trump: Well I think it was a – well again, I’ll say something that again is controversial. There were a lot of votes cast that I don’t believe. I look at California…
Todd: Mr. President, that’s just…
Trump: Excuse me. Take a look at Judicial Watch. Take a look at their settlement. California admitted to a million votes. They admitted to a million votes.
Todd: A million votes of what? What are you talking about?
Trump: Judicial Watch made a settlement.
Todd: About what?
Trump: There was much illegal voting. But let me tell you about popular vote. I like popular vote. I think I do better with the popular vote.

Trump is still insisting that millions of illegal votes were cast in California, despite having been thoroughly debunked without a shred of evidence. And his comment that there were “votes cast that I don’t believe’ is both deranged and frightening, given the approaching 2020 election.

But then Trump wades into lunatic territory with his demand to look at a settlement with the ultra-rightist Trump-fluffers at Judicial Watch. Trump claims that it reveals an admission by California authorities that “a million votes” were cast illegally. Trump couldn’t explain what he was talking about, even after prodding by Todd. So he clumsily changed the subject.

The settlement that Trump was referring to was one wherein California agreed to remove a million and half votes “inactive” voters from the registration lists. These were names of people who had not voted in several elections and had either died or moved. There was not a single one that had cast any vote, much less an illegal one. As reported by the Associated Press:

“At issue was how election officials were handling records of voters who hadn’t voted in repeated elections and were not part of active voter rolls in the state. […] Paul Mitchell of the nonpartisan research firm Political Data Inc. called the case insignificant because it involves inactive voters who ‘are not getting voting materials, they are not casting ballots, they are not showing up in precincts.'”

Trump’s flagrant lies sound more and more like the rambling blather of senile old coot with a tenuous grasp of reality. And it’s always aimed at glorifying himself in a manner that is wholly undeserved and positively loony. His preposterous self-image is all the more ridiculous considering that he is the only president in the history of Gallup polling to have never cracked 50 percent approval.

And yet, Trump still believes that, but for some imaginary voter fraud, he won the popular vote, and would do so again. This sort of mental infirmity would be bad enough in your crazy retired uncle who sits on the porch all day yelling at clouds. But for someone who holds the nuclear launch codes, and threatens to annihilate foreign countries, this is untenable and downright scary.

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

WHUT? Fox News Media Hack Says it’s ‘Unfair’ if Networks Don’t Cover All of Trump’s Cult Rallies.

Posted by on June 19, 2019 at 2:55 pm. 1 Comments :

It is well known that Fox News has foraged an uncommonly close relationship between themselves and Donald Trump. In fact, Trump would not be president today but for Fox News. They shamelessly championed his campaign, while simultaneously maligning Hillary Clinton and slandering his critics. Subsequently, they have continued to serve as his private PR operation throughout his presidency.

Fox News, Donald Trump

During the 2016 presidential cycle, Fox News covered every single one of his cult rallies in full and uninterrupted. It amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free TV airtime. And that’s not even counting the dozens of interviews Fox did with adoring Trump-fluffers like Sean Hannity and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends. They never did anything similar for Clinton.

Now, Fox’s primary media correspondent and host of MediaBuzz, Howard Kurtz, is weighing in on how Trump is being covered by the cable news networks. And he’s not a happy camper. In an interview with his colleague Bill Hemmer, Kurtz seemed to mimic Trump by raging against CNN and MSNBC for not carrying all of his alleged campaign kickoff rally in Orlando.

First of all, the assertion that this was the kickoff of Trump’s campaign is a blatant lie. He actually filed for reelection on the same day he was inaugurated in January of 2017. And he’s held dozens of rallies since then. This was a charade that was was really just another one of his cookie-cutter cult rallies where he repeated exactly the same tedious themes that he has in all of his other ego-stroking affairs. Just because he calls it a kickoff, doesn’t mean that the media has to obediently buy into that lie.

Consequently, CNN covered the rally just long enough to observe that Trump wasn’t saying anything that he hasn’t said at every other rally. MSNBC monitored the event in case Trump said anything newsworthy. He didn’t, and therefore they didn’t bother interrupting their regular programming for some of Trump’s harshly partisan and hostile rhetoric. And this infuriated Kurtz who said that…

“What I have to say about this is it’s just a lack of class. Now, I’m not saying that the cable networks have to cover every Trump rally, and it did turn into a highly partisan speech in Orlando last night. But this really is sort of networks playing into what Steve Bannon used to call acting like the opposition party. To just simply say we’d rather have our own pundits talking while the president is talking, spending the whole next day analyzing and picking apart what he said, rather than letting our viewers hear from the president as he asks for a second term or begins that process, just seems fundamentally unfair and raises questions about how they’re going to cover this entire campaign.”

A “lack of class”? Kurtz never bothers to explain what was newsworthy about Trump’s speech. But he did associate it with the disgraced former Trump aide and aspiring neo-Nazi, Steve Bannon. Kurtz thinks that people can’t form their own opinions of what Trump said unless they heard it in this address, even though they’ve had the opportunity to hear it dozens of times in the recent past. And he thinks it’s “fundamentally unfair” for news networks not to force Trump down everyone’s throats for the umpteenth time.

It’s interesting to note that Kurtz has never gone to bat like this for any Democrat. He has never whined that it’s unfair or lacks class that Fox News declined to air all of Clinton’s public speeches, or any of those by the current batch of Democratic candidates. No matter how many times they occur. It’s only Trump who is being treated unfairly if his drooling and repetitive rampages are not broadcast 24/7 on every channel.

The one thing that Kurtz said that has some merit, at least with regard to Fox News, is in his closing when he said that this “raises questions about how they’re going to cover this entire campaign.” Although, anyone who has watched Fox for more than few minutes knows exactly how they’re going to cover the campaign – like the loyal StormTrumpers that they are and have always been.

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

Fox and Friends Transforms Into the Official Trump Campaign Media Headquarters

Posted by on June 17, 2019 at 4:09 pm. NO Comments :

On Tuesday Donald Trump is “officially” launching his 2020 presidential reelection campaign. But like everything Trump does, it’s a phony stunt with a purpose wholly unrelated to what is advertised. In fact, Trump launched his reelection bid the day of his inauguration in 2017. The rally that Trump is planning in Orlando is just another opportunity to assemble his cult hordes and rant incoherently for two hours about Democrats, the press, and how awesome he thinks he is.

Fox News Friends

It’s no coincidence that this rally is taking place a week before the first Democratic primary debate, also in Florida. Trump is fond of stepping on the political events of others. It’s his campaign equivalent of photo-bombing. And he’s preparing for the big day by enlisting his State TV (aka Fox News) confederates in the promotion effort. To that end, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends booked Trump’s campaign press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany for a few minutes of uninterrupted Trump-fluffing (video below).

The segment began with a “sneak peek” at Trump’s first campaign ad for the 2020 cycle. It was predictably jam-packed with words and pictures that exalted Trump as the returning Messiah. Notably, the clip that Fox and Friends aired prominently displayed a number to send a text message to the Trump campaign. Then they silently re-played the same segment – with the text number showing – in two-thirds of the screen while interviewing McEnany.

Following the campaign video, Fox and Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt introduced McEnany, and asked her “What do you think?” That’s right. She asked the spokesperson for the Trump campaign what she thinks about the advertisement produced by the campaign. That’s the sort of hard-hitting “journalism” we’ve all come to expect from Fox News. And naturally, McEnany’s response was the typical snake oil patter of a dedicated StormTrumper. Without even bothering to reply as to what she thinks about the ad, McEnany veered into an attack on “the dozens of socialists running in the Democratic field.” Fill-in co-host Dan Bongino then weighed into to ask a probing question which he prefaced by saying that…

“The tax cuts worked, the economy’s booming, unemployment is at historic lows, red tape is being cut. But when you look at polls – I was reading an article a while ago from the New York Times – a lot of Americans don’t even believe they got a tax cut. Contrary to the data which says they did. Do we as Republicans need to do a better job of getting the message out, that this economy is due to a change from the older Obama liberal ways?”

What we have here is an outright declaration by a Fox “News” host that he and his colleagues are Republicans and are seeking advice from Trump’s press secretary on how to advance their shared political agenda. Not that we didn’t already know that, but they don’t often admit it on the air. The rest of Bongino’s “question” was really a thinly disguised campaign pitch for Trump that was littered with provable lies. Most notably that the American people are somehow ignorant of their own tax burdens. Actually, they know very well that Trump’s Tax Scam has hurt them while helping corporations and the wealthy.

Then Earhardt returned to the video’s text message number. Because, just like any other commercial, you can’t repeat that often enough. At this point Fox and Friends began to sound more like the Home Shopping Network for Trump. She queried McEnany saying…

Earhardt: At the bottom of that video we just saw it says to text “Trump” to [REDACTED]. What happens if you do that?”
McEnany: It’s really important. It allows us to update our data. We have the best data in the business, Ainsley. That means we know what doors to knock on. We’re going to be able to isolate the handful of the few million voters who will decide this election. Because of that text you allow us to update our data. You also get to be a Trump volunteer. What’s better than that?

So now Fox News is participating in refining the Trump campaign’s election databases and recruiting volunteers. What’s better than that? This was followed by co-host Steve Doocy raising the issue of Trump’s floundering poll numbers. He noted that “The story over the weekend was that the President is not doing very well in his internal polls.” That’s true, and after denying that these polls exist, Trump fired the pollsters suspected of leaking the data. McEnany waved it all off with some lazy and transparent spin. But what Doocy didn’t bother to mention was that there was another poll over the weekend with similarly bad news for Trump. That one was by Fox News itself, and it showed Trump losing to all five of the Democrats that they pitted against him.

This is just the beginning of the 2020 election cycle, and already Fox News is fully engaged in their role as the media arm of the Trump reelection effort. If anything, they are even less ashamed of exposing their partisanship than in previous cycles. If there were any justice, Fox News would be forced to declare itself a political operation and report its services as in-kind contributions to Trump’s campaign. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen because integrity at Fox News is as rare as it is in the candidate they are working for.

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

Holy Fox News Poll: Every Democrat Beats Trump, Also Trump Coordinated with Russia

Posted by on June 16, 2019 at 3:56 pm. 1 Comments :

There has been a lot going wrong for Donald Trump lately. Most of it due to his own incompetence and big mouth. He admitted that he would take dirt on on political opponents from hostile foreign governments. He accused his own White House counsel of perjury. He threatened an economic catastrophe if he isn’t reelected. And he even speculated about declaring himself Dictator-for-Life.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

So what more could go wrong for Trump after a week wherein he has made assholery a hallmark of his presidency? Well, he might want to cut back on consumption of his beloved Fox News. That’s because they just released a poll that has almost nothing but bad news for him. It’s funny how Trump rejects polls across the board until one says something nice about him. And that one is often Fox News. But now he will have to lump Fox in with all the other “Fake News” haters trying to destroy him.

It starts with his approval rating that Fox puts at a dismal 45 percent. Even worse, the breakdown of those numbers showed that only 21 percent strongly approve, while 41 percent strongly disapprove. And this comes the day after Trump celebrated the results of a bogus survey by the notoriously disreputable Rasmussen Reports, that showed a ridiculous 51 percent approval.

Additionally, the poll pitted Trump against the top five Democratic candidates and Trump lost to all of them: Biden/Trump: 49/39; Sanders/Trump: 49/40; Harris/Trump: 42/41; Warren/Trump: 43/41; Buttigieg/Trump: 41/40.

Quinnipiac just ran a similar poll with the same results. What’s more, Trump lashed out at reports about leaked results to his own internal polling that also showed him losing. He called both the reports and the polls fake news. But for some reason, he just fired those pollsters.

Fox News included a question in their poll that asked “What would your reaction be if Donald Trump were reelected president?” The answers were Enthusiastic/Pleased: 36 percent versus Displeased/Scared: 50 percent. They also asked “Do you think a politician can have low moral and ethical standards and still be a good leader?” By a 25 percent margin (35/60) they said resoundingly “NO.”

There was plenty of other bad news for Trump in this poll. For instance: Respondents say that Trump’s immigration efforts have “gone too far” (50%); they support the Dreamers (72%); they oppose Trump’s tariffs (52%); they oppose his border wall (55%); a plurality say that Trump’s tax reforms “benefit people with more money” (48%); And on whether Trump coordinated with Russia, 50 percent of voters say that he did.

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

Taken together, this is devastating news for Trump. Not only because the numbers themselves indicate how deeply unpopular he and his ideas are, but because this is from a source that he relies on for sycophantic bootlicking and positive reinforcement. Unfortunately for Trump, he can’t wave off this poll like he does all the others. He can’t accuse the source of being Trump-haters or denizens of the “Deep State.” And he’s going to have a hard time pretending that the 43 percent of American voters in this survey who say that he should be impeached are paid plants by George Soros. He’ll need a whole new level of self-deception to slog through this.

COLLUSION: Trump is Committing Treason in Order to Resuscitate His Floundering 2020 Campaign

Posted by on June 13, 2019 at 11:57 am. 10 Comments :

It is impossible to understate the profoundly evil nature of what Donald Trump told George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday. In an extended interview, Trump not only justified his prior collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, he also placed an open call for hostile foreign governments to do the same thing in 2020. It’s an unambiguous attempt to seek assistance from America’s enemies. This is Trump’s reelection campaign strategy.

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

The interview was an astonishing performance by an unabashed traitor to American laws and principles. What follows are a few of the most egregious segments that are profoundly disturbing and utterly inexcusable.

Stephanopoulos: But should [Don Jr] have gone to the FBI when he got that email?
Trump: Okay, let’s put yourself in a position: you’re a congressman, somebody comes up and says, “Hey I have information on your opponent.” Do you call the FBI? You don’t– I’ll tell you what. I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. I don’t–you don’t call the FBI.

Actually, Trump has called the FBI at least twice according to FOIA documents, but only when it’s to his personal benefit.

Stephanopoulos: Al Gore got a stolen briefing book. He called the FBI.
Trump: Well, that’s different. A stolen briefing book. This isn’t– this is somebody who said, “We have information on your opponent.” Oh, let me call the FBI. Give me a break, life doesn’t work that way.

It’s not different. The information that Trump was seeking (Clinton’s and DNC emails) was also stolen information on his opponent. And calling the FBI is precisely the way it works, even according to Trump’s own FBI director, Christopher Wray. So Trump responded that…

Trump: The FBI Director is wrong. Because, frankly, it doesn’t happen like that in life.

Trump: If somebody comes into your office with oppo research– they call it oppo research–with information that might be good or bad or something, but good for you, bad for your opponent, you don’t call the FBI. I would guarantee you that 90 percent, could be 100 percent, of the congressmen or the senators over there, have had meetings–if they didn’t they probably wouldn’t be elected.

Here Trump is trying to conflate normal opposition research with his collusion with foreign governments, which is illegal. Then he cites some statistics that he’s pulled from his – assumptions and justifies the criminality because, as he says, everybody does it. So therefore it’s okay?

Stephanopoulos: Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
Trump: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen, there’s nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, “we have information on your opponent.” Oh, I think I’d want to hear it.

Norway? It’s funny how Trump can’t bring himself to mention Russia. But more to the point, what he’s describing here is collusion, plain and simple. He goes on to say that he wouldn’t report it to the FBI because “the FBI doesn’t have enough agents to take care of it.” Sure, because there are only 13,412 special agents and 20,420 support professionals.

Trump may have point. 33,000 FBI agents might not be enough to investigate all of the crimes that he has committed. In this interview he said once that he might alert the FBI to unlawful communications with foreign governments. But he said four times that he wouldn’t. And he said it again in a series of tweets on Thursday morning:

Notice that the examples he uses are our allies. Once again, he refuses to implicate Vladimir Putin and his pals in the Kremlin. He also fails to mention whether these talks included getting dirt on his opponents. He is deliberately trying to deflect from the real issue. And unfortunately, that will work on his Deplorable followers and his shills at Fox News.

The bottom line is that Trump’s remarks are a direct invitation to our enemies to engage in hacking or other illegal activities and pass along what they steal to Trump. He has already told them that he’d listen. So why wouldn’t they do it? He is unambiguously soliciting a criminal act. And for that alone Trump should be impeached and imprisoned.

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

Here’s a Solution for Trump’s Whining that ‘Something Strange is Going on at Fox News’

Posted by on May 21, 2019 at 1:27 pm. 1 Comments :

The single most predictable expression emanating from Donald Trump at any given moment is his relentless, childish whining. If he isn’t whining about the Mueller investigation, he’s whining about something a Democrat said, or the “fake news,” or Hillary Clinton’s emails, or invading caravans of refugees at the border, or China, or Iran, or worst of all, Obama. And that’s the short list.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Strange

A new entry into Trump’s parade of targets for his whine-feasting is one that many might not have expected. Although no one and nothing is safe from his wrath because all it takes is one slip up and you’re on his shitlist. But his recent attack on Fox News certainly raised some eyebrows.

During his latest cult rally in Pennsylvania, Trump ricocheted from one random nuisance to another with his typical flair for incoherence. He threatened to have his Attorney General, William Barr, investigate Democrats and the FBI for treason. He “joked” about serving five terms as president. And he accused Joe Biden of “deserting” Pennsylvania by moving to Delaware with his parents – when he was ten years old. This is a new wrinkle on his abhorrent policy of separating families. And then he unleashed this brilliant bit of paranoid mush (video below):

“What’s going on with Fox, by the way? They’re putting more Democrats on than Republicans. Something strange is going on at Fox, folks! Something very strange. […] Somebody’s gonna have to explain the whole Fox deal to me?”

Somebody’s gonna have to explain nearly everything to Trump. But more to the point, that was Trump’s response to the town hall Fox News aired on Monday with Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. But more importantly, it was Trump’s admission that he regards Fox News as his personal publicity shop where only his views – and those of his GOP allies – are authorized to be broadcast. And if Fox should dare to stray from Trumpian orthodoxy, they are officially guilty of betraying the cause of white-wing nationalism, and him personally. He did exactly the same thing after the Bernie Sanders town hall on Fox.

Trump is actually right in an odd way. Research by Media Matters found that Democrats do appear on Fox News with some frequency. In fact, that occurs far more often than the cowardly Republicans appear on CNN or MSNBC. Trump himself is the King of the Cowards. He has not done an interview with either of those networks since becoming President.

Part of the reason that Fox News is hosting more Democrats than usual is that the Democratic primary field currently consists of twenty-four candidates. However, there is solution to this foreboding problem. Since Trump believes that there are too many Democrats taking up airtime on Fox News, all they need to do is schedule some more Republicans to even out the alleged imbalance. At the moment there is only one other Republican challenging Trump for the GOP nomination. That’s former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld.

As the chief executive of a large state that generally skews blue, Weld should be considered at least as viable a candidate as Buttigieg, the mayor of a small town in rural Indiana. Although Weld is taking on an incumbent president, that shouldn’t be a consideration for a legitimate, independent news network. If Fox News isn’t a Trump-fluffing propaganda operation, they should have no problem inviting Weld to do a town hall.

On the other hand, if Fox fails to offer an invitation to Weld, they are conceding that they are in the tank for Trump and will abide no opposition. To date there is no indication that any such invitation has been proffered. This seems like a perfect opportunity for Weld to approach Fox and insist that he be given the same consideration as Buttigieg, Sanders, and Trump. He is a serious contender with a platform that resonates with millions of Americans. And he would satisfy Trump’s call for Fox News to book more Republicans. So it’s time for Fox to step up and try to prove that they have at least a sliver of journalistic integrity. That, of course, may be too much to ask.

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

Sen. Warren Declines Invitation to Do Town Hall Because ‘Fox News is a Hate-For-Profit Racket’

Posted by on May 14, 2019 at 12:17 pm. 3 Comments :

The debate over whether or not Democrats should appear on Fox News continues to divide many of the current candidates for the Democratic nomination for president. Pete Buttigieg and Kirsten Gillibrand are each scheduled for upcoming town halls. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar have already done their Fox events. And all the evidence proves that they have nothing to show for it. In fact, both have lost points in subsequent polling.

Fox News, Elizabeth Warren

Oddly enough, Donald Trump had one of the most relevant responses to the Sanders town hall on Fox. He tweeted that it was “So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on @FoxNews.” That’s an acknowledgement that Fox News is regarded as the State TV outlet for the Trump presidency and anyone not devoutly worshipful of Dear Leader and the right-wing agenda is out of place and unwelcome.

Now Sen. Elizabeth Warren has weighed in with her response to an invitation from Fox News do to her own town hall. And her reply shows precisely how every Democrat ought to respond when being asked to voluntarily subject themselves to the bias and abuse of these avowed media foes:

That tweet initiated a thread that properly characterized Fox News as the politically prejudiced scam that they have been since inception. Warren’s take down was both brutal and insightful and deserves to be read in its entirety. What follows is the content of her next six tweets:

“Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracy theorists. I won’t ask Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates. Sign up now to join me and take a stand.”

“Hate-for-profit works only if there’s profit, so Fox News balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet. It’s all about dragging in ad money—big ad money.”

“But Fox News is struggling as more and more advertisers pull out of their hate-filled space. A Democratic town hall gives the Fox News sales team a way to tell potential sponsors it’s safe to buy ads on Fox—no harm to their brand or reputation (spoiler: It’s not).”

“Here’s one place we can fight back: I won’t ask millions of Democratic primary voters to tune into an outlet that profits from racism and hate in order to see our candidates—especially when Fox will make even more money adding our valuable audience to their ratings numbers.”

“I’m running a campaign to reach all Americans. I take questions from the press and voters everywhere I go. I’ve already held town halls in 17 states and Puerto Rico—including WV, OH, GA, UT, TN, TX, CO, MS & AL.”

“I’ve done 57 media avails and 131 interviews, taking over 1,100 questions from press just since January. Fox News is welcome to come to my events just like any other outlet. But a Fox News town hall adds money to the hate-for-profit machine. To which I say: hard pass.”

There isn’t much to add to that. Except to note that Democrats should not be lending their credibility to a network that exists to malign them and prevent them from having any political success. Also, every study shows that Fox News viewers are the equivalent of cult members whose loyalty and opinions are immovable. They are hopelessly gaslit victims of Trump’s propaganda. They are a fanatical, irredeemably warped cult of right-wing extremists. They simply cannot advance the prospects of any Democratic candidate. Particularly during the primary where the candidates are only trying to appeal to their own party’s voters.

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

Refusing to reward Fox’s hostility with guest spots isn’t about being afraid to face their lame hosts. That’s a cake walk. It’s about refusing to help them sanitizing their hateful agenda and outright lies. And if anyone is exhibiting fear it’s Trump. He is so petrified of MSNBC and CNN that he has never permitted these networks to interview him as president. Then again, Trump’s whole persona is rampant with examples of how frightened he is by any sort of challenge. His Twitter feed is dripping with panic and dread of everything from his dismal polling to his anxiety about being loved by his authoritarian idols, Putin, Kim, etc. And you can bet he’s having nightmares about special counsel Robert Mueller.

Fox News: Lying or Stupid? Hosts Falsely Claim that Trump is Second in Donations By Women

Posted by on May 4, 2019 at 11:27 am. 2 Comments :

When America is suffering through a presidency that has achieved the rare milestone of having told more than 10,000 lies since it began, it may not be an earth shattering revelation that this president’s media mouthpiece traffics just as flagrantly in deliberate falsehoods. But, sadly, that’s what we are enduring in the era of Donald Trump and Fox News.

Fox News, Donald Trump Baby

The latest example of this occured on Saturday morning’s episode of Fox and Friends, Trump’s favorite morning show. and a significant source of data for his executive decision making. The “Curvy Couch” potatoes raised the subject of the 2020 race for the White House and sought to reveal some financial statistics that they thought would help boost Trump’s prospects in the upcoming election. Their typically partisan and shallow discussion resulted in this exchange (video below):

Jedediah Bila: In 2020, donations for the first quarter in 2019 – Gillibrand, $1,271,135. Kamala Harris, $3,661,680. And third is President Trump at $1,473,830.
Ed Henry: So he’s number two for female donations.
Bila: Right. These are women donations. So everyone that’s out there on the left making the talking point that women are anti-Trump, or Trump is anti-woman, have to remember that the chief issue that drives women to the polls is the same thing that drives everyone to polls. And that is jobs and the economy.
Pete Hegseth: Also, a lot of women, they are our culture warriors. They see what is happening in our schools, in our churches and elsewhere, and they look at this President’s willingness to focus on patriotism.

Let’s set aside Hegseth’s tangential and condescending remarks and the fact that Trump is a notorious abuser of women. Instead, let’s focus on the fact that Fox News got everything about their story horribly wrong. To begin with, the data Fox was citing was from the campaign finance research website, Open Secrets. However, the Open Secrets report was about the “gender distribution” of the donations. In other words, it was studying the percentage of the donations that were from women, not the total receipts. And that’s how the table they posted was sorted.

So contrary to Fox’s claim, Trump was not the second biggest recipient of donations from women. He was not even close. The study they were citing actually just noted that he ranked third in the percentage of female donors. All it took was a glance to see that Trump was actually sixth in terms of total female donations. And that’s despite the fact that many of the female donors were divided among four Democratic women (Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, and Warren) who were less well known than the current president. Trump’s total take from women even ranked lower than Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker.

It took a prodigious amount of ignorance, carelessness, and/or dishonesty for the Foxies to screw up this simple story so badly. But those are “skills” that they work on every day. Don’t expect Fox News to acknowledge this error, or to offer a retraction or apology. They knew what they were doing and they’re proud of their efforts to mislead their already pitifully ill-informed audience. It’s what they were created to do.

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