Trump’s Preposterous ‘Peace Presidency’ Post Exposes the Depths of His Delusion

Posted by Mark NC on May 11, 2021 at 4:50 pm. 3 Comments :

At this point nobody should be surprised by Donald Trump’s relentless tsunami of lies. After racking up an insurmountable record of more than 30,000 false statements in four years, Trump continued to pour out flagrant falsehoods for months propounding his “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

Nevertheless, the audacity with which he dishes out deceit is astounding. On Tuesday he put out a statement on his spanking new alternative social media site about the escalating violence between Israel and Gaza. Naturally, the comment served to advance the only things that are ever important to Trump: exalting himself and maligning his foes, particularly President Joe Biden. Trump wrote that…

“When I was in office we were known as the Peace Presidency, because Israel’s adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked. Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden’s weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies. America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself. Unbelievably, Democrats also continue to stand by crazed anti-American Rep. Ilhan Omar, and others, who savagely attack Israel while they are under terrorist assault.”

The “Peace Presidency”? Really? The same one that incited a deadly insurrection in Washington, D.C., in order to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after his humiliating loss to Biden? You can hardly make a claim to peace after you tried to overthrow the U.S. government and threatened the lives of the people’s representatives in Congress.

However, more to his point, Trump appears to be suffering from a severe cognitive disorder. His criticism that “the world is getting more violent and more unstable because [of] Biden’s weakness” has no basis in reality. And Trump didn’t even bother to substantiate it. He simply lashed out with a hollow fury that proved only how deranged he is. And of course, he closed with a racist assault on Rep. Omar.

As for Trump’s tribute to his imaginary deterrence of Israel’s adversaries, his recollection is pitifully flawed. He implies that a threat of “swift retribution” kept the enemy at bay. But the truth is that there were numerous attacks on Israel throughout Trump’s term in office. Just last year…

February 6, 2020: “14 Israeli soldiers and cops wounded in attacks by Palestinian assailants, two Palestinian policemen killed by IDF, several clashes erupt amid tensions tied to Trump peace plan.”

And then there was…

September 15, 2020: “Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, at same time as Israel and two Gulf Arab states signed normalization agreements at the White House in Washington.

“Warning sirens sounded in the coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump met the foreign ministers of United Arab Emirates and Bahrain at the White House.”

In fact, there were multiple attacks on Israel by Palestinians militants every year of Trump’s presidency. And he did nothing in response. He often didn’t even comment, even though some of the violence was triggered by his actions, such as moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

When Trump did comment, it was always to condemn the Palestinians, even if their violence was in response to Israeli aggression. That is not how an effective diplomat deescalates conflict and brings warring factions together. To the contrary, it deepens the resolve of combatants.

Trump’s self-serving tribute for a “peace presidency” that only exists in his diseased mind is typical for someone with his psychotic maladies. And he’s determined to get others to believe his delusions. That’s just as evident in this comment on Israel as it is his promulgations of the “Big Lie,” or the size of his crowds, or length of his border wall, or value of his wealth, or any of the other myriad untruths he’s told.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Biden’s Broad Based Approval Proves the Impotence of Fox News Propaganda

Posted by Mark NC on May 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm. 4 Comments :

Joe Biden has been president for nearly four months. Throughout that time Fox News has done what Fox News always does: Attacks Democrats, liberals, and anyone who fails to fall in line with the the network’s ultra-rightist dogma. Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch even said publicly that he considers it Fox’s job to oppose Biden.

That mission has narrowed of late to more directly apply exclusively to Donald Trump, rather than the conservative “principles” that once guided the propaganda spew of Fox News. It has become the mandate of both Fox News and the Republican Party to back up Trump, even when it goes against their agenda, the best interests of the party, or the law.

So how’s that working out for them? A new poll by the Associated Press-NORC has an abundance of good news for Biden, along with proof that Fox News has utterly failed in their smear campaign. The poll found that 63% of the American people approve of the job Biden is doing as president. That was broken down between a whopping 96% of Democrats, a healthy 62% of independents, and even a significant 23% of Republicans.

The poll also found that Americans are more optimistic about the direction of the country (54%) than they have been in four years. Which means that this increased optimism isn’t just due to the success Biden has had managing the COVID pandemic. It contrasts with the sullen pessimism that infected the whole of Trump’s term.

As for the handling of the pandemic, Biden has a stellar 71% approval, including 47% of Republicans. The relief and stimulus bill that Biden and congressional Democrats passed (without a single Republican vote) was overwhelming popular across the political spectrum. What’s more, Biden also has majority approval of his handling of healthcare (62%) and the economy (57%).

These numbers are notable, not only because they reflect a growing appreciation for Biden and the progressive initiatives being implemented by Democrats, but also because they were achieved while the most watched cable “news” network was engaged in a full court press to malign the new president. Fox News has labored mightily to undermine Biden at every turn. Although it wasn’t an easy task considering the difficulty they had finding anything to criticize. For that reason Fox obsessed over bizarre trivialities like the “canceling” of Mr. Potato Head, or Grammy porn, or the fallacy that Biden plotted to ban hamburgers.

It’s encouraging to see that despite their best efforts, Fox News has been a dismal failure at dragging down Biden and the positive agenda he’s pursued. Their propaganda blitz doesn’t seem to have tarnished him in the least. If anything, it suggests that he would be even more popular had they not been so obsessively denigrating him.

The only people being hurt by Fox’s avalanche of lies are Fox’s own viewers. They are now more distant from reality than ever. They are more likely to contract the coronavirus due to the scare mongering of Fox News anti-vaxxers like Tucker Carlson. They are more willing to believe Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from him. They are more comfortable with the rancid racism that is integral to Fox’s messaging.

In short, the audience that is still transfixed by Fox News and its toxic brand of anti-American hostility will continue to wallow in the cesspool of falsehoods that Fox peddles as “news.” But, as this and other polls certify, the majority of the American people remain uncontaminated by Fox and hopeful about the nation’s future. So Fox is just screeching to the choir and having little impact on congregation.

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

Fox News Openly Admits it Interferes with Elections

Posted by Mark NC on May 9, 2021 at 12:55 pm. 8 Comments :

The blatant partisan biases of Fox News have been well known for most of its 25 years as a shameless dispenser of conservative propaganda. Having been founded by an ultra-rightist newspaper baron (Rupert Murdoch) and a Republican media consultant (Roger Ailes), it could hardly be anything else.

Nevertheless, Fox News has labored feverishly to persuade the gullible that they are a “fair and balanced” news source. That deliberately misleading slogan was abandoned abandoned three years ago in favor of “Real News,” which is even worse because, not only is it utterly false, it clamps onto Donald Trump’s tedious “fake news” rants. Trump has even repeatedly leveled that charge at Fox News. And in response, Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch just bends over more to Trump and spins the network’s coverage to boost him and the GOP. Murdoch recently said publicly that he regards Fox News as “the loyal opposition“ to President Joe Biden.

It isn’t often that Fox News admits that they are committed to trafficking in right-wing lies. But one rare incident occurred on Sunday tucked into an article on their website headlined: “NPR ripped for ‘openly admitting’ Big Tech interference in elections.” Fox linked to an NPR article about Facebook’s suspension of Trump and how it has affected him. It read in part that the suspension…

“…will likely have major consequences for Trump’s political power. [and that] being on Facebook is crucial for modern-day political campaigns. [and that] Trump’s campaign used Facebook to fundraise and spread its message — at times with false and odious information.”

From those sentence fragments, Fox News concluded that NPR was “openly admitting Big Tech interference in elections.” But that conclusion is absurd in the extreme. What NPR was saying was that exposure on Facebook – or the lack of it – can have an effect on elections. Which is both true and glaringly obvious. But having an effect is not the same as interfering. All media has the very same effect. Including cable news.

So, is Fox News “interfering” in elections when they report/distort the news in a manner that benefits conservatives? Well, yes they are. But that’s because what Fox does is entirely different than what Facebook, NPR, and other media do.

Facebook’s suspension of Trump was not intended to affect the outcome of an election. It was due to Trump’s own defiance of the rules that every Facebook user must comply with. If Trump had not posted disinformation that incited violence and led directly to deadly riots on Capitol Hill, he would still be able to post, and he could quit his petulant whining.

Fox News, on the other hand, continues to get away with the same reckless and inflammatory rhetoric that got Trump suspended and people killed. Their programs are riddled with falsehoods that are plainly intended to have an effect on elections, and worse, are likely to cause great harm. That’s especially true with regard to their downplaying of the COVID pandemic and their vaccine scare mongering. Consequently, if anyone deserves to be suspended from Facebook – and all other social media – it’s Fox News.

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

‘I Watched It On TV,’ Cries Trump ‘Big Lie’ Believer at America First Rally

Posted by Mark NC on May 8, 2021 at 11:47 am. 9 Comments :

This is what we’re up against, folks. Friday marked the launch of the “America First Tour” headlined by Donald Trump’s most zealous fans, Matt Gaetz (who is currently the subject of a federal investigation for sex trafficking and corruption) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (who is a devoutly committed disciple of QAnon). The affair was held at a retirement community in Florida known for being a bastion of ultra-conservativism.

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan attended the event and interviewed some of the Deplorables gathered to cheer on the Dyspeptic Duo. In one particularly disturbing segment, O’Sullivan entered into this dialog with a couple of Trump’s true “Big Lie” believers:

Q: You guys genuinely believe the election was stolen?
A: Uh huh.
Q: If you believe that that’s true, isn’t that horrible?
A: Yes. I know it is. Is it horrible that we would even be in the situation to even think that?
Q: But it’s false.
A: No it is not. Why would they have all those ballots hidden under tables? Why did that man drive that truck all the way across state lines with ballots?
Q: The ballots under tables thing with Giuliani in Georgia, that’s all been proven to be false.
A: It has not. I watched it on TV.

Friday night in The Villages with @OutFrontCNN pic.twitter.com/sXk7Dc1F0q

— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) May 7, 2021

Well, that settles it then. She saw it on TV. And as the whole civilized world knows, everything on TV is one hundred percent true. Why just a few days ago I saw Tucker Carlson reveal that Barack Obama is going to force you to get your kids vaccinated. Tucker wouldn’t lie, would he?

It’s a safe bet that the couple in that clip keep their television tuned to Fox News (or Newsmax, or OAN) twenty-four hours a day. And they believe every lie that they broadcast. In this case, they are referring to a thoroughly debunked story about allegedly phony ballots that were hidden under a desk at a Georgia counting facility. The charge was that these ballots were later retrieved and counted after all the observers were sent home and they were all votes for Joe Biden.

That story was feverishly spread by most of the right-wing media. Trump, of course, also included it in his delusional tales of a “stolen” election. However, the story has indeed been proven to be unequivocally false. The video they claim to have “watched on TV” shows the normal process of ballot counting with independent observers present and no irregularities whatsoever.

The problem here is that there is no way to convince the couple in the video that they have bought into a lie and are being taken for fools. They will continue to believe what they think they saw on TV, even if shown the evidence that it’s false. And they aren’t alone. They are just the latest representatives of the cult that has grown like a fungus around the lies disseminated by Fox News and their ilk.

If we hope to halt the totalitarian aspirations of Trump and his Republican Autocratic Party (like the execrable Lindsey Graham who just declared that the GOP cannot “move forward” without Trump), we have to stop it at its source. And that means monitoring and challenging the propaganda dispensed by the Trumpists and their Ministry of Disinformation (aka Fox News) at every opportunity.

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

Newsmax Reporter’s Asinine ‘Many People Say’ Question Gets the Psaki Treatment

Posted by Mark NC on May 7, 2021 at 3:22 pm. 2 Comments :

It’s becoming a nearly daily event to see President Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, thoroughly, but gently, rip the stuffing out of the pseudo-journalists from Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax, in the bright lights of the White House Press Room. You would think that these ultra-partisan poseurs would learn their lesson and take a day or two (or a month or two) off. But no.

On Friday, the latest episode of Survivor: White House Press Corps saw Emerald Robinson of Newsmax in the dunking chair. And this wasn’t her first time. Last month she tried to pose a question that assumed a total absence of racism in American history. It didn’t go well. On this outing, Robinson was likely certain that her pre-planned gotcha question would penetrate Psaki’s cool exterior. But she obviously hadn’t anticipated the anti-missive that Psaki had ready to deploy (video below):

Robinson: Given the number of former Obama administration officials there are now in this Biden administration, and the President’s relatively light schedule, there’s the growing perception that this is really just the third term of President Obama. What do you say to people who say that?
Psaki: Who’s saying that?
Robinson: We hear that a lot in the media.
Psaki: Who in the media?
Robinson: Different people.
Psaki: Like?
Robinson: Well, there was lots of questions.

OUCH! Robinson really scored with that knockout “different people” punch. But Psaki was unfazed. She ended up ignoring the rest of Robinson’s question, which was lucky for Robinson, because the question was an impotent jab based on an utterly false premise. To begin with, there is nothing peculiar about any administration recruiting from people who have had prior White House experience. In fact, it would be foolish not to. Trump was an exception because he didn’t know anyone with relevant experience, so he recruited mostly from Fox News. And as for Biden’s schedule, here are examples of a recent Biden calendar followed by one for Trump:

Here’s Biden’s public schedule for tomorrow. (Public schedules don’t include all of a president’s activities.) pic.twitter.com/z3UfbIswsz

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 7, 2021

Here’s Trump’s public schedule for tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/VisWy9Igxc

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 5, 2021

We already knew that the bulk of Trump’s non-golfing time was spent watching Fox News and tweeting what he saw. Biden, on the other hand, actually attends briefings, consults with his Cabinet, and does the meticulous work required to be a productive chief executive. Which is what made Robinson’s question so ridiculous. But undeterred by humiliation, Robinson shifted gears, changing the subject entirely. She went on to babble something about Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Psaki recently defended from a phony Fox News “scandal.” Robinson was troubled by Harris greeting foreign leaders, as if that wasn’t something done by every vice-president. Psaki had to remind her that…

Psaki: The president has had dozens of conversations and calls with world leaders and it should be no surprise that the Vice-President is also playing an important role engaging with and having discussions with foreign leaders.
Robinson: But it’s more so than other vice presidents have.
Psaki: How so? I’d love to see the data if you want to send that to us.
Robinson: I’ll provide you with that sometime.
Psaki: Sure.

Sure. Sure she will. Psaki shouldn’t wait by the door for that data to arrive. Twice in less than a minute and a half, the Newsmax hack was left grasping for a coherent response when Psaki merely asked her to back up the question. And this sort of massacre is happening regularly. At some point Psaki will have to bar Newsmax from the briefing room as a gesture of mercy.

It’s Jen Psaki’s “sure” at the end ?? pic.twitter.com/u6JwIJQdzP

— Brian McBride (@BrianDMcBride) May 7, 2021

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

Crybaby Trump and His Whining Republicans Threaten Illegal Retaliation Against Facebook

Posted by Mark NC on May 5, 2021 at 1:28 pm. 4 Comments :

Several months ago, Donald Trump was suspended by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, among others, for disseminating lies and disinformation that had a certifiably dangerous impact on the nation. On Wednesday morning Facebook released the decision by its independent Oversight Board to uphold that suspension, at least for the time being.

The Board found that…

“…in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Mr. Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible.” […] “At the same time, the panel found the indefinite suspension inappropriate and asked Facebook over the next six months to review the decision and develop a ‘proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform.'”

The reaction to that decision by the Trump camp was as swift as it was ludicrous. Trump’s response was a post to his pitifully comical new “communications platform” saying that…

““What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country. Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before. The People of our Country will not stand for it! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process.”

To give credit where credit is due, Trump knows plenty about being “a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country.” However, his assertion that “free speech has been taken away” from him proves that he doesn’t have any idea what the term means. For the record, free speech is the constitutional protection against the government (not private business) suppressing speech.

What’s more, Trump apparently doesn’t think that being able to appear at will on national cable TV propaganda networks (i.e. Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, etc.) and a multitude of other right-wing media outlets (i.e. Breitbart, Daily Caller, New York Post, etc.) constitute platforms for free speech. If he’s really concerned about free speech, he might want to stand up for Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who is presently being shut down for telling the truth about Trump and his incitement of the deadly Capitol insurrection.

More troubling is Trump’s overt threat that “social media companies must pay a political price.” That is, in itself, an attack on the free speech rights of the businesses that operate social media sites. And it is purely political retaliation for what he imagines is bias against conservatives. Never mind that the highest trafficked pages on Facebook are by right-wingers:

The top-performing link posts by U.S. Facebook pages in the last 24 hours are from:

1. Ben Shapiro
2. Ben Shapiro
3. Ben Shapiro
4. Fox News
5. ForAmerica
6. Dan Bongino
7. Sean Hannity
8. Dan Bongino
9. Fox News
10. The Rachel Maddow Show

— Facebook's Top 10 (@FacebooksTop10) May 5, 2021

Joining Trump in this directed assault on social media are his Republican Party confederates. They are now openly threatening to retaliate against Facebook with legislation aimed at punishing them and even breaking them up. Those threats are, of course, being amplified by Fox News.

To be sure, there are problems with the power wielded by Facebook, Twitter, et al, that need to be addressed in a rational and fair manner. But Trump and the GOP are mounting a knee-jerk assault based entirely on their political peeves. You won’t see them make the same complaints about Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson not giving airtime to Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. But you will see House GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy threatening to “rein in big tech power“. Or GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida introducing a bill to “hold big tech accountable.”

Now Trump likely doesn’t know that these actions are blatantly illegal because he’s a raving ignoramous. But these legislators undoubtedly know that the Constitution prohibits them. They are called “Bills of Attainder,” and defined as “a legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment.” Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 of the Constitution states plainly that: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed.”

So whatever you think about Facebook’s decision regarding Trump, it is unarguable that Trump and the Republican Party are proposing to break the law with their retaliatory smackdown. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who has paid attention to Trump and the GOP for past four years (or 40 years?). They simply don’t care about the law. The only thing that matters to them is the acquisition and preservation of power by any means necessary. And that, as Trump says, is something that “the people of our Country will not stand for.”

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

LOL: Fox News Reports that Trump Has Launched His (Pitifully Lame) Alt-Twitter Site

Posted by Mark NC on May 4, 2021 at 3:19 pm. 16 Comments :

About six months ago Donald Trump was booted off of several social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. His exile was prompted by his relentless lying, particularly about the COVID pandemic and his delusional “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him.

Ever since then, crybaby Trump has whined that he’s a victim of a clandestine techie cabal determined to silence him. He also promised that he would eventually return to the InterTubes with his own social media platform. And now, according to Fox News, that time has come. The announcement was made on the Fox website in an article headlined: “Trump launches new communications platform months after Twitter, Facebook ban.” It began…

“Former President Trump on Tuesday launched a communications platform, which will eventually give him the ability to communicate directly with his followers, after months of being banned from sites like Twitter and Facebook. […] The space will allow Trump to post comments, images, and videos.”

However, a link to Trump’s new “communications platform” reveals something decidedly underwhelming. Firstly, it’s just a subpage of his current website. Secondly, it’s nothing more than an old school blog. And even at that it’s lacking the standard features that exist on every other blog, including the ability for visitors to post comments. As Fox News describes it…

“The space allows Trump to post, and allows followers to share the former president’s posts to Twitter and Facebook, however, the new platform does not have a feature to allow users to “reply” or engage with Trump’s posts.”

WOW! This highly advanced technology was produced by Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who is currently under investigation for stealing $40 million from Trump’s campaign.

In addition to the pathetic implementation of this alt-Twitter farce, the claim that it was just launched is also untrue. Trump already has posts going back to March 24. Although the most recent post is short video that hysterically oversells the blog, saying that…

“In a time of silence and lies a beacon of freedom arises. A place to speak freely and safely. Straight from the desk of Donald J. Trump.”

Sure. A place to speak freely, but only for Trump, since no comments are allowed. And as a Trump property, you can rest assured that it will fulfill its mission to be a beacon of lies. But, for the most part, it’s primarily an outlet for Trump to vent incoherently the way he used to on Twitter. So far his posts have lashed out his critics, praised his sycophants, and always – ALWAYS – promulgating the “Big Lie.” that he’s the “real” president being oppressed by an imaginary cabal of “Deep State” usurpers.

So it’s really no different than a Trump cult rally. The same anger and hostility, The same undeserved bragging. The same feeding of his voracious ego. And the same constant avalanche of flagrant falsehoods. All wrapped up in a sorry little 1990s style weblog that isn’t even marginally interactive. It’s just another sad and humiliating failure for America’s Biggest Loser, the former reality TV game show host, and the current leader of the Republican Party.

UPDATE (Still failing): NBC News is reporting that: “The ex-president’s blog has drawn a considerably smaller audience than his once-powerful social media accounts.”

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

Messiah Trump Decrees that ‘From This Day Forth’ the ‘Big Lie’ Shall Be the Truth

Posted by Mark NC on May 3, 2021 at 11:37 am. 3 Comments :

The one thing that Donald Trump excelled at throughout his failed, one-term, twice-impeached presidency, was his unassailable record for pathological lying. It’s a safe bet that no future chief executive will even approach his 30,000+ lies. Certainly, Joe Biden’s slow start in that regard will never be competitive – thankfully.

Consequently, it’s fitting that that the phrase “Big Lie” came to be associated with Trump. It’s descriptive both generally, as well as a reference to his relentless whining that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by a colossal conspiracy for which he and his confederates have failed to unearth a shred of evidence after six months. And tragically, the “Big Lie” led directly to the deadly Capitol riots by Trump’s Insurrectionists.

As Trump’s impotent complaints about being the victim of nonexistent election fraud have faded into irrelevance, he has now begun an effort to rebrand the “Big Lie” to better suit his delusions. It’s a favorite tactic of the former reality TV game show host to pretend that his definitions of common words and concepts supersede those of the rest of the English speaking world. So on Monday morning he issued his latest edict from on high (aka Mar-a-Lago) to his glassy-eyed disciples declaring that “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as the BIG LIE!”

I hate sharing these dumb statements but will make an exception in this case given that the clear intent to keep on lying about the election really clarifies Facebook's decision that is coming this week on his account. pic.twitter.com/iHVaIAjMPr

— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) May 3, 2021

It’s cute that Trump believes he has the power to order what everyone else will think “from this day forth.” He can’t he even post his “orders” on Twitter or Facebook due to his rampant dishonesty. Although he is threatening to launch his own alt-Twitter to satiate his voracious ego. Even members of his warped Republican Party are mocking him:

The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) May 3, 2021

Worst of all (or best, depending on your perspective) is that Trump has absolutely no idea how pathetic he looks. Just last week he performed his clown act before a tiny audience of doting upper-crusters at his Palm Beach resort. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Trump babbled, “if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes, […] Because this was a rigged election. Everybody knows it.” CNN’s Jim Acosta (who recently tagged Fox News as a “Bullshit Factory“) provided precisely the right visual for Trump’s pitiful appearance:

CNN's Jim Acosta just called Trump a sad old Elvis who sounds like an animatronic figure speaking at the Hall of Discredited Presidents at Disney. pic.twitter.com/r8QxOVp5ho

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) May 2, 2021

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

STILL? Fox News and Texas AG Shamelessly Peddle Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ on Election Fraud

Posted by Mark NC on May 2, 2021 at 1:43 pm. 1 Comments :

Are we still doing this? The election that Joe Biden won decisively by more than seven million votes was six months ago. It was certified by Congress (after a violent insurrection by Donald Trump’s cult followers) four months ago. All fifty states validated their own election results, even those dominated by Republicans. Biden was sworn into office three and a half months ago. And yet…

Fox News is continuing to promulgate the “Big Lie” that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. They contend that he would be lounging comfortably in the White House bedroom, watching Fox News, with a Big Mac and a Diet Coke, but for the alleged “fraud” that they insist occurred despite the total absence of even a shred of evidence. There’s a good reason that Fox News was recently labeled a “Bullshit Factory” by CNN’s Jim Acosta, and that a former Australian Prime Minister called it a “Market for Crazy.”

On Sunday morning Fox’s Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo (who is currently the subject of a billion dollar lawsuit for defamation), interviewed Ken Paxton, the Texas Attorney General notorious for spearheading a preposterous lawsuit to steal the election from Biden. His suit asked the Supreme Court to throw out millions of votes, not in Texas, but in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all states that Biden won. And in this segment with Bartiromo, they both wandered farther down that path of anti-democratic idiocy (video below):

Bartiromo: Are you saying that because of what we saw on mail-in ballots in Georgia you’re questioning the results?
Paxton: I absolutely am questioning. I know what would have happened here. They would have stopped counting just like they did in those states. And they would have been counting mail-in ballots until they get the right number of votes and suddenly Trump loses.

Notice that Bartiromo doesn’t identify “what we saw” in Georgia because no one saw any voting irregularities at all, including the Republican Governor and Secretary of State. Nevertheless, Paxton was adamant in his refusal to accept the election results. And the only reason he could muster was his fantastical speculation that a clandestine cabal of evildoers were plotting to miscount ballots on behalf of Biden.

Paxton offered zero support for this crackpot conspiracy theory that lawless Biden operatives were burrowed deep into the GOP-dominated Texan government. Neither did he provide any explanation for how that plot was foiled. But he and Bartiromo did repeat their dubious claims about the election being stolen:

Bartiromo: So are you questioning what happened in the 2020 election?
Paxton: Absolutely! They didn’t follow state law in those states. It’s clear. Whether you think there was fraud or not. It’s almost impossible to prove the fraud because they’ve separated the ballots. They never did the signature verification. So the proof, the evidence is gone.

Paxton’s complaint about the ballots being separated without any signature verification is simply a lie. What’s more, he fails to mention that in the states he is complaining about, the procedures were challenged by republicans in the courts and in every case were deemed to be in compliance with state law. But that didn’t stop him from making bizarre allegations that the “fraud” he insisted was “clear” could not be proven. If fraudulent activity is unprovable due the absence of evidence, then it can’t be considered “clear.” Paxton seems to believe that the absence of evidence is proof of guilt. By that standard, he’s the Zodiac Killer.

The fact that Paxton and Fox News are still pitching this bullpucky is a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party and their right-wing PR machine (aka Fox News). It says that they are still beholden to the Cult of Trump and to his delusional aspirations of dictatorship. And it affirms that they cannot be taken seriously as partners in democracy. Their only agenda is the pursuit of power and the dissemination of the the lies necessary to sustain it.

Maria Bartiromo and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton push the big lie about the 2020 election pic.twitter.com/QxKrVOiCfE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 2, 2021

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

WHOA! CNN’s Jim Acosta Rips New York Post and Fox News: USDA Grade A Bullshit

Posted by Mark NC on May 1, 2021 at 4:09 pm. 8 Comments :

Here’s something you don’t see every day. Anchoring CNN’s Saturday Newsroom, Jim Acosta reported on the debunked and ridiculed story that the children’s book – Superheroes Are Everywhere – by Vice-President Kamala Harris was given to every migrant child who arrived at border detention facilities.

Acosta’s take on the easily disproven story was an epic smackdown of the fake news purveyors that included the New York Post and Fox News. It was a thing of beauty:

“Take for example the uproar over this New York Post story that claimed that copies of a children’s book written by Vice-President Kamala Harris was being given to migrant kids in their “welcome” kit. That tale from the border didn’t just border on BS, This was USDA Grade A bullshit and the reporter who wrote the story resigned claiming she was forced to make it up. But the damage was done, pumped out over the airwaves at the bullshit factory also known as Fox News.”

“From there the lie kept spreading. Prominent Republicans like House Minority Whip, Steve Scalise, who suggested the Vice-President was profiting off the problems at the border. His tweet is still up.”

Acosta: This was USDA Grade A bullshit and the reporter who wrote the story resigned… but the damage was done, pumped out over the airwaves at the bullshit factory also known as Fox News pic.twitter.com/1j2GDOVlwJ

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 1, 2021

The story, of course wasn’t true. There was a single book received among donations to help the kids by members of the community. But that didn’t stop the right-wing fabulists intent on manufacturing fake scandals from jumping on the phony allegation and disseminating it to their fact-averse followers.

Numerous high-ranking politicos regurgitated the flagrant falsehood. And their tweets also still remain online. They include GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, GOP Party Chair Ronna McDaniel, Sen. Tom Cotton, Rep. Jim Jordan, to name just a few.

The New York Post deleted the original story and then replaced it with another version that said that “Kamala isn’t at the southern border — but at least one migrant kid got Veep’s book.” The new version, which changed little more than the headline, was also attributed to the original author, despite her having resigned amid complaints that she was forced to write the false article.

The tweet to which Acosta was referring is one that Scalise posted with a video of Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki. She was responding to a question from Peter Doocy of Fox News who asked whether Harris “was making any money” off of the book’s distribution that never happened. Scalise asked in his tweet if “Kamala Harris [is] profiting off the border crisis?” No, she wasn’t. And, yes, it’s still there:

WATCH ? White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dodges and says "I hear it's a good book" when asked if Kamala Harris is making money off her book being handed out at border facilities.

Is Kamala Harris profiting off the border crisis?

Americans deserve to know. pic.twitter.com/TAdBs7IdM6

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) April 27, 2021

It’s satisfying to see the more conventional news networks speaking truthfully about the blatant dishonesty of Rupert Murdoch’s propaganda enterprises. They are the most prominent and prolific source of disinformation and they present an imminent danger to democracy and America. It’s long past time that they be treated by legitimate journalists as the right-wing domestic terror PR agency. Because that is what they are.

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

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