Election

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 (which he later deleted, but is preserved here) 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.

GOP Party Hacks are Feeding at the Fox News Trough in Advance of 2018 Election

Posted by on October 20, 2018 at 12:09 pm. 1 Comments :

With only seventeen days left until the 2018 midterm election, Donald Trump is keeping his promise to campaign heavily for his Republican pals – almost. His actual promise was to “go six or seven days a week when we’re sixty days out.” It hasn’t been quite that much, but it’s been enough to make Fox News stop covering his cult rallies live.

Fox News, Republican, Donald Trump

Including his latest GOP Revival Meeting in Nevada, Trump has made fifteen of these trips in September and October, much of it being paid for by the very same clueless chumps who are cheering him on for his determination to cut government spending (like Social Security and Medicare). Which might be seen as somewhat hypocritical of Trump, who previously smacked President Obama for doing far less politicking:

It hardly seems necessary for Trump to get out of bed for these junkets. After all, he is preaching exclusively to his most devoted disciples who are going to vote Republican anyway. And his message isn’t getting any further exposure due to the fact that none of the news networks are carrying it any more. The only reason he continues to do these tedious, repetitive stand up routines is for the ego boost he gets from the slobbering masses of Deplorables.

However, that doesn’t mean that Trump isn’t getting significant public exposure prior to the election. Fox News (of course) is fulfilling its role as State TV by hosting Republican campaign operatives on a near constant basis. The Hollywood Reporter notes that:

“For the Republican National Committee, top-rated Fox News Channel and sister network Fox Business Network have given massive exposure and a few million dollars in expected publicity to chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany at a time when the party is struggling to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

“In the months of September and October, McDaniel has appeared across the networks 18 times, watched by an estimated audience of more than 18.4 million viewers. McEnany, a former CNN pro-Trump contributor and polished television personality, has been even more prolific – she’s appeared 34 times before an estimated audience of 29.9 million people.

“Combined, McDaniel and McEnany’s 52 appearances have an estimated publicity value of $2.62 million, according to media monitoring service Critical Mention.”

What’s more, these are not the only GOP shills that are camped out at Fox News. There are numerous right-wing contributors spewing the party line. And even their hosts are brazenly campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates. Sean Hannity actually solicits his audience to make donations to GOP hopefuls.

This is what Democrats are up against. They have no equivalent media partners to offset this unethical marriage between Fox News and the GOP. Plus, Democrats are already facing unlawful efforts by Republican office holders to suppress the votes of minority citizens and to make voting more difficult, or impossible, in Democratic leaning districts. We aren’t just fighting against a conservative political machine that will tell any lie to retain their grip on power. We are also fighting a media assault that is frantically pushing the interests of the Republican Party and the Trump regime.

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

So if you value this nation’s small “d” democratic principles like freedom of speech, accountability to the law, compassion and equality for all, a sustainable environment, and fair elections, you cannot sit idly by. This year it is more important than ever that everyone who is concerned about having rational checks and balances on the criminal administration currently occupying the White House be diligent about getting to the polls, and getting all of their caring, progressive friends and family to do the same.

The GOP News Network (aka Fox News) Is SHOCKED that Billionaires Donate to Democratic Campaigns

Posted by on October 14, 2018 at 1:41 pm. 4 Comments :

It’s just about three weeks until the midterm elections that are forecasting a massive Blue Wave. Most campaign analysts agree that Democrats will secure a majority in the House of Representatives, and some believe the Senate is in play as well. Consequently, Fox News is pulling out all the stops to obstruct that outcome by loading up their schedule with Republican politicians and pundits sermonizing on the urgency of saving the Trump regime’s grip on unchallenged power.

Fox News, Maria Bartiromo

Republicans have abdicated their constitutional role as a check and balance on the other branches of government, particularly the executive branch. Instead, they have been brazenly shielding Trump and company from any legal accountability for their many crimes. And Fox News is aiding and abetting that betrayal of American values. Fox host Maria Bartiromo secured her status as the chief Sunday morning Trump-fluffer with an “interview” of Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. The segment was pretty much a monologue by the GOP hack intended to boost Republican voter turnout and malign Democrats.

However, one subject dominated the discussion more than the typical gaslighting we’re accustomed to by Republicans. McCarthy raised his “real concern” about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s donations to Democratic candidates (video below):

“There is a real concern that I have though, because Michael Bloomberg, if you watched who recently registered a Democrat, he is trying to buy the Democrat nomination to run against President Trump. So he has put in $80 million to try and win the House.”

Bartiromo, naturally, agreed with McCarthy. She went on to misstate the truth about which party is getting the most donations from average Americans, and she complained about “a handful of big, deep pocketed donors like a Michael Bloomberg, like a Tom Steyer.” McCarthy took that handoff and ran with it saying that:

“Just think the three individuals who are funding the Democratic Party. George Soros. You’ve got Michael Bloomberg, is not just $80 million into the House, he put another $20 million to try to win the senate. Then Tom Steyer. More than $120 million trying to win. But his main goal is trying to impeach President Trump. He brags that his impeachment list is bigger than the NRA list. Those three individuals are trying to buy our government in this process. It’s very disturbing.”

Why McCarthy correctly noted that there are more people supporting Trump’s impeachment than there are members of the NRA is puzzling, but appreciated. But more to the point, he itemized the contributions of some wealthy Democratic donors and noted how disturbed he was by it. And was it just a coincidence that all three of the rich Dems are Jewish?

What McCarthy didn’t bother to mention is that just one single wealthy donor to the Republicans, Charles Koch, is spending $400 million, more than the total McCarthy said was being donated by all of the Democratic supporters combined. And that isn’t even counting all the other GOP big money donors like the Adelsons and Uihleins. For some reason McCarthy and Bartiromo don’t find that disturbing.

Bartiromo goes on to praise a GOP campaign slogan saying “Build the wall, enforce the law. Yeah.” Then she gives McCarthy an open ended question about where Republicans are running close races with Democrats. And McCarthy took that baton and launched a two minute sprint of races that he wanted to promote on national television to an audience of obedient cult worshipers. It could not have been a more obvious contribution of valuable TV airtime to a political party than if it were branded with a big GOP elephant in place of the Fox News logo.

And this political assist to the Republican Party comes at just the right time. With the midterms approaching, Trump’s frequent cult rallies were boring the Fox News audience so much that Fox cut back on airing them live. The network was also losing a ton of ad revenue because Trump’s speeches could not be interrupted for commercial breaks. So to compensate for the loss of that TV exposure, Fox News is increasing their donations of airtime to GOP shills who will proselytize the right-wing doctrine in a more profitable, TV-friendly format. All in a desperate effort to stave off an electoral bloodbath next month that they probably can’t avoid. Well, as long as Democrats stay focused and turn out at the polls.

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

Fox News Guest Dinesh D’Souza Honors the Humanitarian Slave Owners of the Old South

Posted by on October 8, 2018 at 3:50 pm. 3 Comments :

Leave it to Fox News to find the bright side of slave owners. While the rest of the civilized world condemns human trafficking, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends managed to produce a segment that highlighted the freedom loving Confederates on the old plantations of Dixie.

Fox News, Dinesh D'Souza

Co-host Steve Doocy interviewed one of Fox’s favorite shameless disseminators of flagrant lies, confessed felon Dinesh D’Souza. Earlier this year Donald Trump pardoned D’Souza for the federal crime that he had pleaded guilty to. The Fox segment began as an attempt to mock Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for what they asserted was a gaffe. It wasn’t. She tweeted that:

Ocasio-Cortez was replying to a tweet that noted that two recent presidents who lost the popular vote have put four justices on the Supreme Court. Doocy then asked D’Souza “Why does the Electoral College matter,” and “what do you think she was talking about?” D’Souza’s reply began by mansplaining what Ocasio-Cortez really meant (video below):

“Well, first of all, I think she’s confusing the Electoral College with the “three-fifths” laws. The three-fifths laws was about slavery, and it had to do with an argument between the North and the South over representation. Ironically, the North, which was the anti-slavery side, wanted blacks to count for zero because they wanted to reduce the representative power of the slave states. The South wanted blacks to count for a full person. So the three-fifths laws which was usually presented to show that the founders didn’t consider blacks to be fully human, doesn’t actually show that at all.”

D’Souza is almost right. The problem is that he leaves out the fact that the South only wanted to count slaves because it gave the region more clout in the federal government. Slaves would still be denied any rights and considered to be property. The South wanted it both ways: to own blacks like chattel, but count them to increase the political power of their white masters. Then D’Souza swung back around to the Electoral College:

“Now the Electoral College was a different matter. The Electoral College emerges out of this contest between the large states and the small states. Not an antiquated issue. We have that now. We have large states, we have small states. And if we had a system that gave power only to the large states, the small states would essentially be unrepresented. The whole point, remember, the core of our founding is the consent of the governed. So to create the union the founders needed the consent of the large states and the small states. The Electoral College is a part of that arithmetic.”

Once again, D’Souza os only partly correct. Much of the dispute between the large and small states was still a matter of north and south. The population of the North far exceeded that of the South. So Ocasio-Cortez was correct in associating the Electoral College with slavery. What’s more, D’Souza is wrong in stating that smaller states would be unrepresented without the Electoral College. Their representation in Congress would be identical. The only difference would be in presidential elections.

However, that difference has become a useless and undemocratic anachronism. Given the boundaryless mobility of the modern U.S., we should not still be electing the president by states, but rather by voters. There is no coherent reason why the tiny populations of Idaho or Wyoming should have a greater say in presidential elections than the vastly more numerous populations of California or Texas. And it’s fair to say that there are a lot of former residents of Idaho and Wyoming who now live in California and Texas. Should their votes be diluted simply because they moved?

Ocasio-Cortez is right to raise the issue of eliminating the outdated Electoral College. It should have been done long ago. Hopefully her colleagues in Congress join her in that initiative when she gets there in January. In the meantime, Fox News needs to stop hosting racists who talk down to women and demean them personally as incapable of grasping these issues. But then they would have hours and hours of dead air.

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

Despite His Hysterical Smear Campaign, Americans Still Trust the Media More than Trump

Posted by on September 12, 2018 at 5:53 pm. NO Comments :

For more than two years now, Donald Trump has been attacking what he calls the “fake news” at every opportunity. He does it in interviews, on Twitter, and at his tedious cult rallies where he seems to be on auto-pilot, regurgitating the same old cliches that his disciples devour like nicotine candy. Even after being told that his reckless labeling of the press as “the enemy of the people” was a rhetorical remnant of Joseph Stalin, Trump continues to use the line without the least bit of shame or decency.

Donald Trump

However, after his years-long campaign of denigrating the press, as well as the Constitution’s First Amendment, Trump has gotten nowhere in terms of swaying the favor of the public. A new poll by Quinnipiac asked “Who do you trust more to tell you the truth about important issues: President Trump or the news media?” A majority of fifty-four percent chose the media. Only thirty percent chose Trump. That’s a twenty-four point margin of difference. Broken down demographically, the only group that trusts Trump more, outside of the margin of error, is Republicans. But Independents, Men, Women, and every age and ethnic group trusts the media more.

The poll also asked “Which comes closer to your point of view: the news media is the enemy of the people, or the news media is an important part of democracy?” And by an even bigger majority the media came out far ahead, with sixty-nine percent saying that the media is an important part of democracy. And once again, every demographic breakdown agreed, except for Republicans. Forty-seven percent of the Grand Ole Party actually agrees with Trump (and Stalin) that the media is the enemy of the people. This is an affirmation of the Trump rally-goers who were immortalized wearing a t-shirt that reads “I’d rather be a Russian than a Democrat.”

The poll had plenty of other bad news for Trump and the GOP. On the question of which party voters will back in the November election, a majority of fifty-two percent said Democrats, beating Republicans by fourteen points. Seventy-two percent of voters disapprove of the job the Republican controlled Congress is doing. Perhaps that’s because fifty-eight percent of them think Congress isn’t doing enough to be a check on the President. And both of those last two responses were shared by majorities of every demographic group. These survey results are in alignment with most of the recent polling on these subjects. See also:

It seems that no matter hard Trump pushes on his media bashing, the American people see through his tirades and continue to reject him. That’s reflected in the three latest opinion polls on Trump’s favorability (CNN, Quinnipiac, and NPR/Marist) that all put him in the thirties, and at new lows. Add to that the polls showing that the public trusts special counsel Robert Mueller over Trump, and the future looks bleak for Donnie and his dwindling party. Mueller, of course, has also been the victim of Trump’s persistent, but apparently impotent, outrage.

If these results hold for the next eight weeks, the much anticipated “blue wave” is going to swell into a tsunami. According to the survey statistics experts at FiveThiryEight, Democrats need an eleven point advantage to secure a takeover of both the House and the Senate. That advantage is currently at fourteen points. But these are merely estimates based on numerical analyses. The final election results rely on people actually going to polls and casting votes. So this is no time to become complacent of overly confident. It’s time to work hard every day between now and election day. That’s the only way to achieve the victory that America needs so badly.

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

Ted Cruz’s Idiotic Anti ‘Tofu and Silicon’ Platform Will Destroy the Economy of Texas and America.

Posted by on September 9, 2018 at 11:17 am. 7 Comments :

The ongoing spectacle of the collapse of common sense within the Republican Party seems to be accelerating with each new day and each new preposterous outburst by some GOP ignoramus. The ignoramus in question is most frequently the one who occupies the White House, but Donald Trump can’t hog the glory entirely, much as he may want to.

Ted Cruz

Texas Senator Ted Cruz isn’t about to sit back and let someone else get all the attention for being America’s most flagrant disseminator of lies and misinformation. Cruz has worked too long and hard to make a name for himself in this field of assholery. So in an effort to recapture the recognition that he feels he deserves, Cruz gave a speech in Humble, Texas, about the evil agenda being advanced by his opponent, Beto O’Rourke, that included this brilliant campaign promise:

So Cruz is appalled that Democrats want Texas to be “just like California” (the most prosperous state in the country) “right down to tofu, silicon, and dyed hair.” But he’s not having that “on our watch.” Which makes you wonder if he’s ever been to Texas, or gives a damn about it.

Let’s start with tofu. This much maligned product is actually enormously popular in the United States and around the world. It’s made from soybeans which is now the largest cash crop in America, surpassing the previous king of the farming hill, corn. It accounts for billions of dollars in revenue. Unfortunately, much of that is being threatened by Trump’s ill-advised tariffs aimed at China. And Texas itself produces more than 6.84 million bushels a year. What must Texan farmers think of Cruz’s attack on their businesses? Fun Fact: Whole Foods is headquartered in Texas.

As for silicon, Austin, Texas is the home of Dell Computers, the third largest PC manufacturer in the world. It’s also the largest private company in Texas by revenue. Of course, they aren’t alone. Many other nationally prominent computer related business call Texas home, including Texas Instruments and GameStop. And giants like Apple, Cisco, and Google all have regional offices in the state. Perhaps Cruz was thinking of silicone as what he wanted to keep out of Texas. That would cause significant harm to Hollywood, but also make a lot of cowboys really mad. And would Melania be prohibited?

Cruz’s vicious and unprovoked assault on dyed hair is the most peculiar items on his list of evils invading the state. First of all, it presupposes that there isn’t already lots of dyed hair in Texas. And that isn’t limited to the punk rockers that he was probably inferring. It also includes much of their blonde population and, therefore, almost every woman who works for Fox News. And it includes men of a certain age as well, and probably Cruz himself. So what, exactly, is his point?

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

This campaign tactic seems destined to fail. Not only does it hurt the Texan economy, it makes Cruz out to be both ignorant and out of touch with his state – and reality. It reaffirms many of the reasons that he is regarded as so unlikeable and the most hated man in Washington. And juxtaposing that with the charisma and magnetic personality of Beto O’Rourke can only be a further, and serious, detriment to the Cruz candidacy. It might be the worst thing that Cruz could have done after his inviting Donald Trump to come to Texas to hold a rally for him. That should be fun considering what these two have said about each other over the past couple of years. For instance:

Death Spiral? Trump’s Favorite Poll, Rasmussen, Has Him at 44% – Lowest in 7 Weeks

Posted by on September 5, 2018 at 2:06 pm. 2 Comments :

It isn’t easy being a malignant narcissist. Having such an intensely egocentric fetish with oneself carries with it numerous burdens. Chief among those is an unhealthy obsession with what everyone thinks of you. Consequently, Donald Trump is consumed with the polling on his public approval and, more notably, his disapproval.

Donald Trump

There hasn’t been very much good news for Trump with regard to his recent polling. This affront to his self image caused him to freak out and mistakenly brag that he had reached a fifty-two percent approval rating. Turns out he misread the numbers. That was actually his disapproval rating.

Many of the latest surveys place him at or near the worst showings of his presidency. For instance, last week ABC/Washington Post published their most recent poll that showed Trump at a new high in disapproval (60%). It so flustered Trump that he called it a “suppression poll” in an angry tweet that falsely maligned the pollster’s accuracy. Then he followed that up with a tweet about his favorite propagandist polling outfit, Rasmussen, that was somewhat more friendly, although it still had him underwater (48-50%). Nevertheless, his tweet praised Rasmussen as “one of the most accurate.”

Seeing as how Trump appreciates the alleged accuracy of Rasmussen’s polling, he must be taking seriously the latest in their daily tracking of the President’s approval, or lack thereof. On Wednesday Trump sunk to a seven-week low. Rasmussen is reporting his disapproval at fifty-four percent. His approval was down to forty-four percent. Interestingly, Rasmussen also has Trump’s “strong” disapproval at forty-four percent, which ties with his total approval. Ouch.

For the record, the most recent Fox News poll has Trump’s approval only one point higher than Rasmussen’s (45%). So the consensus among the State TV propaganda outlets is pretty clear.

This slippage could not be happening at a worse time for the President. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, has been tightening the screws with new indictments, convictions, and guilty pleas of close Trump associates. The release of Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, is revealing the crisis of chaos in Trump’s “Crazytown.” His Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is getting flambe’ed at his confirmation hearings in the Senate (and his approval rating is the lowest of any Supreme Court nominee).

Finally, Trump is preparing to hit the campaign trail on behalf of floundering Republicans nationwide. You have to wonder how many of them still want him to show up. Because at this rate Trump may be hitting record lows even on Rasmussen’s poll. He’s only got six more points to go before matching the thirty-eight percent he pulled on August 2, 2017. That’s totally doable, Donnie. Keep hope alive.

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