Trump Picks Dr. Oz (Another Fox News Hack) to Lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The Cabinet of Donald Trump is shaping up to reflect his most notable range of experience, that of a former reality TV game show host, with a reputation that was wholly manufactured by network public relations agents. Heaven forbid that Trump would select someone with the actual skills and knowledge to do the job he is appointing them to.

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Donald Trump baby with Fox News logo

The single most common characteristic of the team Trump has put together thus far is their shared employment and/or association with Fox News. To date at least ten of Trump’s proposed agency heads have been either Fox News hosts or regular contributors. They include such ill-equipped talking heads as Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel, Tulsi Gabbard for director of National Intelligence, and many more.

SEE THIS: Trump is Stacking His Cabinet with Fox News Trump-Fluffers

On Tuesday morning Trump added to that list of disrepute Dr. Mehmet Oz, who Trump is nominating to be the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In the announcement that Trump posted on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, he said that…

“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Well, Oz will be working with the RFK, Jr, the guy with the dead brain worm, who collects road kill, and says that no vaccine is safe. That’s comforting. What’s more, Oz has no background in health care administration or social services. What he has is a face that Trump has seen on his TV.

As for his medical background, during the COVID pandemic, Oz “promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on more than 25 Fox News broadcasts in March and April 2020.” And “In April 2020, Oz appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity and said that reopening schools in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it would cause.” And he has also said that he wants local political leaders to join with women and doctors in their personal decisions about abortion.

Suffice to say that this is another department within the Trump administration that would be run by an incompetent who lacks the basic skills to conduct its business. And his opinions are diametrically opposed to those of most of the American people. But fear not. Trump assured us in his announcement that he will carry out Trump’s mission to slash the budget for these healthcare programs that millions depend on, saying that…

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”

The obsession by Trump and the Republican Party to cut Social Security and Medicare is totally understandable when you recognize that they have to do it in order to pay for the tax breaks that they plan to give to corporations and the wealthy. Someone has to pay, and it sure isn’t gonna be Trump or his billionaire buddies. And if the suffering it causes happens to impact the MAGA minions in rural America, well, it’s what they voted for. It’s just unfortunate that the rest of the country will have to suffer along with them.

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Fox News Lies that Biden Wasn’t at a Cabinet Meeting, Even as Their Own Video Shows Him There

First Lady Jill Biden’s presence at a Cabinet meeting last week has triggered the hypersensitive conspiracy crackpots at Fox News. This is another example of how desperate they are for anything derogatory with which to smear President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

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Fox News, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Friends

Since the Trump-fluffing propagandists at Fox News can’t find anything of substance to use against Harris, they are increasingly resorting to ridiculous trivialities and outright lies to malign the Democratic ticket. And often their pathetic criticisms are both trivial and false. For example…

SEE THIS: Fox News is Desperately Struggling to Find Dirt on Kamala Harris – Here is What They Found

On Monday morning the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends launched another of their patented disinformation campaigns that are specifically designed to appeal the gullible rubes that comprise the vast majority of their audience. The segment addressed reports that Jill Biden had attended a White House Cabinet meeting.

Unveiling what the hosts – Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Lawrence Jones – apparently believe is a bombshell revelation about President Biden and his administration, they engaged in the following exchange…

Doocy: Regarding Jill Biden, maybe she’s saying that because she’s running the country.
Earhardt: Yeah. She was at the cabinet meeting on Friday. She was at the head of the table. Here’s a picture of her. And I was watching Fox and Friends Weekend and I turn on the TV and I see her at the end of the table and I’m, like, where is he [President Biden]? Why isn’t he at this meeting?
Jones: Miranda Devine [of Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post] writes ‘Who exactly is running the country.’ Certainly it appears to be Jill Biden and not Joe Biden.”

So Fox “News” is reporting that Biden did not attend his Cabinet meeting. And they forcefully demanded to know where he was and why he wasn’t there. But if they had bothered to watch the video that was playing while they were talking, they would have seen Biden right there at the table. Apparently that was too much to ask of these alleged journalists.

What’s more, Fox reported that the First Lady was seated at the head of the table, which they claimed was evidence that she was running, not merely the meeting, but the whole country. However, Biden’s usual place at such meetings is in the middle of the table, where he sat on this occasion as well. But Fox News was too busy digging for nonexistent dirt to pay any attention to measly things like facts. Even if they are only related to the national security implications of – seating arrangements?

What Fox neglected to report entirely was why the First Lady was there in the first place. It was because the President invited her “to give an update on the White House initiative to fundamentally change how we approach and fund women’s health services.” According to the White House transcript of the event…

“We’re grateful that Jill is here today. And here, across previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings and on — for specific reasons. It’s the first time Jill has joined us. And it goes to show how important the issue is, what she’s about to speak to, to both of us.”

Naturally, Fox News doesn’t want to inform their viewers that Biden and Harris are delivering tangible benefits for women. Particularly when MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump have such animosity toward them and openly hold them in contempt.

While the GOP is working to deprive women of critical healthcare, Democrats are making progress expanding those services. And the only thing that Fox News can do in response is to air asinine stories about seating arrangements and the President missing a meeting that he was actually at. And this is what they call “news.”

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Tucker Carlson Unleashes Insane Rant Advocating Tobacco Because ‘Nicotine Frees Your Mind’

The 2022 election cycle featured Republicans across the country furiously condemning Democrats as a ghoulish death cult that was deliberately seeking to harm Americans by affirmatively promoting violent crime, homicidal migrants, and the use and abuse of illicit narcotics.

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Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Coronavirus

Naturally, Fox News reported this nightmare perversion of reality with sensationalized coverage of mostly made up stories fear mongering about nonsense such as Halloween candies laced with fentanyl. Undeterred by the fact that none of their macabre alarmism came to pass, Fox News continues to drown their intellectually enfeebled audience in profoundly dishonest and dangerous disinformation. Particularly about COVID which, due to the flagrant lies and conspiracy theories aired by Fox News, has been found to have killed more Republicans than Democrats.

RELATED: The Pandemic of the Unvaccinated? No! It’s the Pandemic of the Fox News Infected

Leading this putrid pack of propagandists is Tucker Carlson. And on Friday’s episode of his hour of contrived outrage, Carlson pontificated on his aberrant affinity for tobacco. He began by chastising Democrats for having the audacity to oppose the single most preventable cause of cancer, asserting falsely that…

“No wonder they hate tobacco. And it’s not because it causes cancer. They don’t care about your health. They closed the gyms during COVID. Anyone who would close a gym during a pandemic that kills fat people clearly doesn’t care about your health at all.”

Carlson’s “logic” is typically preposterous. He thinks that it would be beneficial for “fat” people to continue patronizing gyms – where there is profuse heaving breathing and sweating on the equipment – during the pandemic spread of a respiratory virus. And this isn’t the first time that he has associated Tobacco with obesity. Sure, overweight people are vulnerable to more severe consequences from COVID, and they should take measures to lose weight for general health reasons anyway. But that’s something they could do at home, or by taking long walks.

RELATED: Tucker Carlson Boldly Defends Tobacco (and Cancer?) as the ‘Most American of All Pleasures’

Carlson, however, would have people patronize the sort of facility that could expose them to the very virus that Carlson is admitting could be deadly for them. He is advising them to go to a densely populated public place where they can exercise to lose weight over a period of months, so long as they don’t get COVID and die in a week or two. That makes sense, right? But Carlson was just getting started. He went on to complain that…

“They hate nicotine. They love THC. They’re promoting weed to your children, but they’re not letting you use tobacco, or even non-tobacco nicotine delivery devices which don’t cause cancer. Why do they hate nicotine? Because nicotine frees your mind and THC makes you compliant and passive. They hate it. It’s a real threat to them.”

Really? First of all, Carlson cannot cite a single example of Democrats “promoting weed to your children.” Secondly, adults can use tobacco all they want, as long as they are not subjecting others to their toxic habit. Third, vaping has many serious health hazards of its own. Fourth, “nicotine frees your mind”??? What sort of cancer death cult has Tucker joined?

Carlson is clearly the one who doesn’t care about your health. He has spent the past couple years pushing COVID disinformation that contributed to the deaths of his own viewers. He has warned them that vaccines don’t work and “they” aren’t telling you.

Carlson recently praised GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for reversing the Capitol smoking ban. Undoubtedly he believes that this new found freedom to suck up poisonous tar and nicotine, and expose others to the same health risks, is a boon to the testosterone deprived members whose masculinity has been on the decline due to the lack of properly tanned testicles. ‘One of the biggest stories in our lifetimes,’ Carlson has said, ‘is the total collapse of testosterone levels in American men.'”

On the same program, Carlson offered his pseudo-libertarian, anarchist view that all laws protecting people from harm are unconstitutional and should be abolished…

“The bottom line is they have no authority. They have no constitutional authority over your personal life. If it’s not in the public sphere, they have no right to ban it. You can smoke any kind of menthol cigarettes you want. You can cook in any stove you want. Only you decide what goes into your body, period. That’s the promise of America. And if we don’t stand up for that and say, ‘No, no. Come and get it.'”

So there you have it. Carlson is now advocating that everyone should be free to use tobacco, as well as fentanyl, meth, and heroin. The government should stay out of consumer product safety and allow lead paint, asbestos, and unsafe child car seats to go back on the market. Because that – getting killed by poisons and defective products – is “the promise of America.” And all this time you thought it was freedom and democracy. But is anyone surprised by Carlson’s latest harangue? He’s the same guy who recently embraced the concept of dissemating misinformation…

SEE THIS: HUH? Senior Fox News Misinformer, Tucker Carlson, Declares that ‘Misinformation Can Be True’

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Stephen Colbert Takes Dr. Fauci to Get His COVID Booster Shot – Or Per Fox News: Govt Propaganda

Whether or not COVID-19 is still technically a pandemic, rather than just an endemic virus such as the flu, is an open and debatable question. What is not open for debate is the fact that the virus is still with us and is still infecting tens of thousands – and killing hundreds – of Americans everyday.

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Fox News, Covid

This month a new vaccine became available that adds explicit protection from the most prominent new variants of the coronavirus. The vaccines effectiveness in preventing serious illness or death is well documented. And studies show that hundreds of thousands of fatalities can be avoided if people get vaccinated. CNN is reporting that “A new analysis suggests that if more people in the United States get their booster by the end of the year, about 90,000 Covid-19 deaths could be prevented this fall and winter.”

To that end, Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert to discuss the benefits of the vaccine and promote its uptake. But he was surprised when Colbert invited him to go down the street and get himself vaccinated, as he had just become eligible. Watch as Colbert accompanies Dr. Fauci to his local pharmacy for some late night healthcare…

While Colbert is keeping his audience entertained and informed about critical health matters, Fox News is continuing their campaign to keep their viewers uninformed, and even worse, misinformed. Their report on Colbert’s trip with Dr. Fauci to get vaccinated was covered in a segment they framed as “Colbert Still Dishing Out Govt Propaganda.”

The gist of Fox’s message was that vaccines are unnecessary, possibly a hoax, and probably harmful. They are, once again, putting the lives of their own viewers at risk. Seniors are the group most vulnerable to sever symptoms and consequences from COVID. And the median age of Fox News viewers is 68.

The effect that Fox News has on their audience is measurable in grief. Studies show that “counties with a Republican majority had a greater share of Covid deaths through October 2021, relative to majority-Democratic counties,” and that “vaccine hesitancy among Republicans may be the biggest culprit.”

The callous and self-serving irresponsibility of how Fox News is deceiving people about the pandemic for purely political purposes is reprehensible. And they don’t seem to be the least bit concerned that the people that they hurting most are their own viewers. To Fox News, disseminating propaganda that advances their ultra-rightist views is more important than human lives. And yet, it’s Fox who accuse Colbert of “Dishing Out Govt Propaganda,” that is actually honest information that could save lives. Now, if only their were a vaccine for Fox News.

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Fox News Recklessly and Purposefully Puts the Life of an Indiana Abortion Doctor at Risk

Last week a heart wrenching news story broke about a ten year old girl in Ohio who was raped and became pregnant. Making the ordeal that she and her family were facing even more traumatic, the family had to take the girl to Indiana because law in Ohio would force her to carry the baby of the rapist to term.

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Fox News, Bullshit Factory

True to form, Fox News falsely asserted that the story of of the girl was fake. Tucker Carlson flatly said it was “not true.” Jesse Watters interviewed the Indiana attorney general who said that he’s investigating the Indiana doctor for unspecified misconduct. Pedophile-enabler, Rep. Jim Jordan, tweeted (and later deleted) that the story was “Another lie.” Fox’s view across the board was was that the story was a hoax aimed at “promoting” abortion and criticizing the recent Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe vs Wade.

RELATED: Jon Stewart Nails It: The Supreme Court is Now the Fox News of Justice

This week the alleged rapist was apprehended and pleaded guilty. Consequently Fox News shifted their coverage to feature assertions about the suspect’s immigration status, and attacks on the Indiana OB-GYN to whom the girl was referred.

In both cases they demonstrate that they are fixated only on the politics of the issue and have zero concern about the welfare of the child. They issued no apologies or retractions for any of the prior claims that the story as fake. Even worse, Fox News has now been identifying the doctor by name and photo, a reckless act that could put her life at risk.

There is a long history of violence against doctors and reproductive healthcare clinics. Reporting by Fox News has certainly contributed to these horrific statistics. Fox knows this, and yet they still engage in this sort of irresponsible and dangerous so-called journalism. Forbes reports that it’s getting worse…

“Abortion providers have been subject to thousands of criminal incidents since abortion became legalized in the 1970s, according to the National Abortion Federation, including 11 murders, 42 bombings, 196 arsons and 491 assaults since 1977.”

Indeed, it will get worse if Fox News gets its way. Their coverage of the issue is inciting radical right-wingers to commit more crimes, just as their coverage of Trump’s “Big Lie” does. And they are pushing those hostile themes even as they falsely accuse Democrats of promoting violence.

RELATED: Ted Cruz Lies to Fox News that Democrats are ‘Encouraging Violence’ After Roe v Wade Ruling

Democrats need to expose the callousness of Fox News and the Republican Party’s intent to encourage violent opposition to the rights of women and families. And a good start was made when Rep. Eric Swalwell righteously dressed down Jim Jordan, who was among those vilifying both the ten year old victim and her doctor…

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OH NOES! Fox News Thinks Obama is Really Running the Government – And It’s Scaring Them Witless

There are plenty of things for Fox News to be worried about these days. First and foremost is the genocidal war being waged by Russia against Ukraine, for which they are siding with Russia who is currently losing. And while the Biden economy is booming, inflation is taking away some of the glow. And a Black woman who they oppose because she’s too qualified is about to be confirmed for the Supreme Court. And Disney is too “woke” for America.

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Obama Fox News

Despite all of those “woes,” Fox News has settled into an entirely different and wholly imaginary catastrophe. During a segment on their “business” channel, Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, invited Republican Senator Marsh Blackburn to commiserate with her on a harrowing hardship that they both contrived from the thin air that is obviously depriving their brains of critical oxygen. That mental malady resulted in the following exchange:

Bartiromo: I think what’s interesting here is that now we understand that Obama is gonna have weekly meetings with Joe Biden. so if you didn’t think Obama was running the country before, maybe you can know that he’s running the country now, given his weekly meetings with Joe Biden. How do you see all of this?
Blackburn: Well, Maria, we know that Obama’s team has been calling the shots all during the Biden presidency, whether it’s Susan Rice or Valerie Jarrett or Jake Sullivan, and Ron Klain. And now in order to try to get the poll numbers up – Biden is at a 55 percent disapproval. The Democrats are poised to take a shellacking in the midterm elections. They need a good news story. And the only way they think they can get it is to bring Obama back as the de facto leader in the White House. And that’s the message they’re gonna try to send. Barack Obama is in charge. And Barack Obama is setting the agenda. And Barack Obama is leading the team.

Holy Shitake Mushrooms! Not Obama! Apparently nothing is more frightening to these ultra-rightist hacks than the thought of a Black man who governed successfully for two terms (that he won with a majority of the popular vote and zero impeachments) returning to provide his insight for the benefit of the nation.

Bartiromo and Blackburn think there is something untoward about Biden employing some of the same people who advised him so ably during his tenure as Vice-President. And the only thing they think is worse than Biden presiding over the nation (via his decisive victory over Donald Trump) is the return of Obama.

Never mind that Obama was only visiting the White House (for the first time since his term ended) because it was the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act that Republicans helpfully tagged with the name Obamacare. He and Biden were celebrating the fact millions of Americans are now covered by health insurance who were previously subject to massive bills and unnecessary medical suffering.

Nevertheless, the only thing that Bartiromo and Blackburn took away from this was their darkly foreboding delusions that their arch enemy Obama is the “de facto leader,” a shadow president who is secretly calling the shots for a cognitively deficient Biden. And it’s terrifying them to even contemplate it. So naturally, they are passing their utterly irrational fears on to the already fretful Fox News audience.

This is nothing more than another Fox News conspiracy theory that rivals any of those promulgated by QAnon. And knowing these two crackpots, perhaps that’s where it originated. In the meantime Fox News is deceitfully editing videos of Biden to bolster their lies about his mental acuity.

Notice that Laura Ingraham is regurgitating the tedious narrative by Fox News hacks that “Biden doesn’t know what on Earth he’s doing, or at times, where he even is.” That’s followed by Tucker Carlson disingenuously sobbing that “It’s awful.” But what’s truly awful is how brazenly dishonest they are. And how repulsively anti-American. The only thing they’re interested in is keeping their flock ignorant and afraid. And that should be be to hard.

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Sean Hannity Comes Out Against Medicare and Other Popular Life-Saving Programs

Sean Hannity has distinguished himself as the Senior Trump-Fluffer on Fox News. He can be depended on to back the Former Guy no matter what the issue is. And now that Donald Trump is frantically lobbying Republicans to oppose President Biden’s “Build Back Better” initiatives in Congress, Hannity is obediently trailing behind like a good drooling sycophant.

Sean Hannity Fox News

On his Fox News program Thursday night, Hannity delivered a harangue that was supposed to be critical of the Democratic infrastructure legislation currently being discussed. But as usual, Hannity was too ignorant, and too obsessed with his knee-jerk, right-wing bias, to include any substantive arguments that support his position. It was just another childish, lie-riddled rant (video below). Hannity whined…

“The bill expands Medicare, Obamacare. It includes money for government housing, government funded medicine, government funded healthy food. Gee, I really need their healthy food advice. After all, they look so healthy. Joe [Biden] looks so healthy to me. And of course, government funded green energy programs.”

Oh my! Hannity is scaring his audience with the fearsome threat that Democrats are trying to strengthen Medicare and Obamacare, two of the most popular federal programs in modern history. And if that weren’t enough, he is also raising the horrifying prospects of having government help disadvantaged Americans with housing, medicine, and food assistance. Hannity’s alternative is apparently to promote homelessness, illness, and starvation.

In his attempt to malign these programs that have broad support across the country, Hannity threw one of his trademark insults at President Biden, suggesting that he isn’t “healthy.” It’s a tedious cliché on Fox News, where they have vainly tried to compare the active and avid Biker Joe to the Couch Potato Trump. But Hannity wasn’t through making an arse of himself:

“And that’s not all. The bill also gives billions in entitlements to illegal immigrants. Oh, why — when other countries charge for citizenship, why are we offering illegal immigrants that didn’t respect our laws or sovereignty, why are we offering them — making them pay?”

WHUT? There is nothing in any current draft of the legislation that “gives billions in entitlements to illegal immigrants.” Hannity is, once again, making things up because he doesn’t have the intellect to form a honest, coherent argument. What’s more, he seems to be proposing that the United States sell citizenship. Everything to these Republican grifters has a price tag on it. And citizenship is just another product, another opportunity to exploit people for profit. Plus, such a repulsive plan would mean that only the rich could emigrate to the U.S.

This is how the GOP thinks. It’s how their “brain” trust at Fox News thinks. But it isn’t how the American people want their nation to be run. America is not a subdivision of Walmart where principles and patriotism are for sale. And the more that cretins like Hannity treat it like that, the deeper they will dig themselves into irrelevancy.

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

Trump Rips Obama’s Executive Orders as ‘Major Power Grabs of Authority’

Nobody is surprised anymore by the rank hypocrisy of Donald Trump and his sociopathic aversion to the ethical principles that most Americans hold dear. He has repeatedly revealed himself to be utterly devoid of the personal qualities that define human interactions: goodwill, empathy, charity, and compassion. In his world there is only Trump and what’s best for him.

Barack Obama, Donald Trump

As further evidence of his twisted and sadistic psychoses, Trump endeavored to brazenly politicize the debate over relief for a nation that is suffering the consequences of his incompetent mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic. It began with him ignoring the fact that Democrats had passed a relief bill in the House of Representatives three months ago that GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell stubbornly refused to allow a vote on. So Trump decided to follow his tyrannical aspirations and unilaterally impose his solutions by dictatorial edict.

Trump characterized his proposals as “Executive Orders” intended to bypass the lawful jurisdiction of Congress. But what Trump actually signed were one executive order and three presidential memoranda, none of which have the force of law. However, they still pose threats to the welfare of the American people and the stability of constitutional governance.

To Trump the law is just an inconvenient obstacle that makes him struggle to figure out ways to defy, disregard, or twist it cynically to his advantage. His attempt to peddle these phony executive orders is a perfect example of his contempt for the ethical administration of the law. In fact, when President Obama was in office, Trump had an entirely different opinion of the use of executive orders:

So when his arch nemesis, Barack Obama, uses executive orders, they are an affront to freedom, an embrace of tyranny, and an admission that you’re a failure at “the art of the deal.” Trump elaborated on this in an interview on Fox News. When the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends asked Trump if Obama could be impeached for his executive orders, he replied

“Well, he certainly did something that was unconstitutional […] I mean, I think certainly he could be impeached and certainly they could shut down the government.”

Elsewhere on Fox News there were additional assertions of Obama’s alleged tyrannical leanings, here and here.

This is the same Donald Trump who just signed an executive order mandating that all insurance policies must cover preexisting conditions. Apparently no one bothered to tell Trump that Obamacare already does that and has been law for the past ten years. In the meantime, Trump is still trying to repeal Obamacare, including the protection for preexisting conditions, with a lawsuit that is headed for the Supreme Court.

If your head is spinning at this point, just sit down and strap yourself in, because it’s only going to get worse between now and November. We are all witnesses to this blatantly political charade by a demented president whose future is circling the drain, and whose hypocrisy is wildly out of control.


For the record, here’s a quick primer on Trump’s political trickery:

One memorandum purports to provide a $400.00 enhancement to unemployment benefits. That represents a $200.00 cut from the previous benefit. But it is also deceptive in that Trump is only offering $300.00 and asking states to make up the $100.00 difference, which they cannot afford during these pandemic times. And if the states don’t contribute, it’s possible that the federal contribution is voided.

The second memorandum claims to defer student loan payments. But a deferral still means that the students will be required to make up those payments in the still uncertain future.

The third memorandum is especially grotesque. Trump calls it a “payroll tax holiday.” Which means that this will also result in a massive balloon payment next year. Although Trump tries to soften the blow by attempting to blackmail Americans into voting for him with an unfulfillable promise to waive the payroll taxes and terminate any in the future. What’s more, payroll taxes are the sole funding source for Social Security and Medicare. Consequently, terminating them would kill those programs entirely.

Finally, the single actual executive order in the bunch addresses assistance to renters and protection from eviction. However, this “order” merely instructs the Department of Housing and Urban Development to look into the matter with no guarantee of any benefit being delivered to the people.


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

WTF? Trump-Fluffer Devin Nunes Tells Fox News that ‘It’s a Great Time to Go Out’

For several months now, Donald Trump has been downplaying the seriousness of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. He has said that it would miraculously disappear; that it was just one guy from China; that there was nothing to worry about; and that it was totally under control. The facts, medical experts, and common sense all tell us that none of that is (or was) true.

Donald Trump, Devin Nunes

Throughout the same period of time, Fox News has supported Trump’s reckless and self-serving negligence. While most American are taking precautions to avoid infecting themselves and others, Fox News is continuing to promote activities that will not only put people’s lives at risk, it will exacerbate the severity of the health crisis that is sweeping the nation and the world.

Another example of Fox’s irresponsibility was on display during a segment of Maria Bartiromo’s program. She interviewed the utterly corrupt Trump bootlicker, Rep. Devin Nunes, wherein he gave this ill-considered advice to Fox News viewers and the American people:

“I will just say, one of the things you can do — if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant — Likely you can get in easily.”

That could not possibly be more ignorant and dangerous at this perilous time for our country. And it is completely contrary to what the healthcare professionals are saying. Even those who are leading Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force like renowned immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci:

“I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing.”

It appears that Nunes and Fox News are deliberately trying to get Americans killed. And they are doing it to advance the political interests of Trump. It has already been observed that his trivialization of this crisis was intended to help his reelection prospects. And these harmful remarks by Nunes come just one day after Fox and Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt told Fox News viewers that “It’s actually the safest time to fly.”

As if that weren’t enough, Trump himself tweeted this on Sunday morning:

So now the President is happily recounting his gathering of sycophants at the White House. Never mind that he is also contradicting the advice by doctors to engage in “social distancing,” something that Trump bizarrely tweeted on Saturday in all-caps.

Furthermore, there is significant risk of contracting the coronavirus by being in close proximity to Trump and his entourage. While he just announced that he tested negative for the virus, his record of rampant, pathological lying causes many people to have reasonable doubts that anything he says is true.

What’s more, it has just been reported that a third person has tested positive for COVID-19 who was a guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. That means that there are more confirmed cases of coronavirus at Mar-a-Lago than in seven states. Perhaps they should consider shutting it down. And then maybe the White House as well. You can’t be too safe.

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

Trump is Patient Zero: His National Emergency Ignores His Own Role as a Risk Factor

After more than two months of slow-walking and trivialization, Donald Trump is finally taking the perils of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak more seriously. The declaration of a national emergency is not only an acknowledgement of the potential threat posed by the virus, but also an implicit admission that his previous approach was pitifully ineffective and even dangerous.

Donald Trump

While it is long past time to begin treating this as the pandemic that it is, Trump is still missing some critical aspects that can have a profound impact. Notably, Trump is setting a terrible example for personal behavior in the midst of a viral outbreak. Despite having been in close proximity to people known to have tested positive for COVID-19, Trump continues to refuse to self-quarantine, or even be tested. His first exposure occurred at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a couple of weeks ago. That resulted in several Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz, self-quarantining. More recently Trump met with the Prime Minister of Brazil and his press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, who has tested positive.

Under any other circumstances, someone with the exposure Trump has had would voluntarily terminate his contacts with others. The possibility that he was infected would make such contacts too dangerous to continue, not just for those persons, but everyone they encounter afterward. That’s precisely how viral pandemics spread. Trump is also putting his senior staff and other government officials at risk. Imagine how that could affect the nation if numerous people responsible for critical government management were simultaneously sidelined.

Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health is a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force. On Friday he told told Willie Geist of MSNBC that anyone who had the interactions Trump has had should isolate themselves for two weeks. Dr. Fauci also told Congress that the Trump administration’s testing protocols are a failing.”

So why would Trump so brazenly reject the guidance provided by every medical expert? Perhaps because it’s consistent with his prior attempts to diminish the severity of the outbreak. He has stubbornly insisted that there really isn’t much of a problem at all. As the virus was spreading, Trump said that there were few victims and the number was going down. He told the nation that it would simply go away. And he recklessly compared it the common flu. Never mind that the fatality rate is 300 times higher for the COVID-19. His purpose was to shield himself from criticism while blaming Democrats for inciting panic and conspiring to use the crisis to hurt him politically.

Not surprisingly, that is exactly the same purpose that has been driving reporting on Fox News. Everyone from Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham to Trish Regan to Lou Dobbs to the “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, have been downplaying the risks while hyping the alleged politicization by Democrats. And both Fox and Trump have been frantically shifting blame to others and falsely criticizing the Obama administration for it’s handling of the H1N1 virus in 2009. What that has to do with the current crisis is obviously just a dodge to attack Trump’s perennial nemesis. For the record, Obama declared a health emergency in the first month of the H1N1 outbreak and tested a million Americans. Trump has tested only about 10,000 people in more than two months.

Trump has been actively seeking to keep reports of infections and fatalities low in order to avoid publicity that makes him look bad and adversely affect his reelection prospects. He even said that he opposed allowing Americans from a cruise ship to disembark because it would increase virus stats. What’s more, the Trump administration refused to the use the COVID-19 test developed by the World Health Organization. These actions are reported to have taken to tamp down the numbers. This, of course, delayed testing in the U.S. by crucial weeks. Trump is clearly more worried about his PR than human lives.

There are a lot of things that the administration can do now to address this crisis and protect the American people. Congress is working on bipartisan legislation to help workers, businesses, and healthcare professionals. But Trump’s bragging and paying tribute to himself is not among them. The virus doesn’t care about his narcissistic rambling.

However, a simple thing Trump can do would be to follow the advice of his own experts. He needs to immediately self-quarantine to prevent further viral infections. And he needs to be tested to give confidence to the nation that he hasn’t become infected himself. He needs to do these things for all of the reasons that healthcare experts have enumerated. But he also needs to do them to set an example for the nation and the world. His obstinance is irrational, counterproductive, and childish. In other words, so very Trumpian.

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