Propaganda

It’s a Crime! Fox News Anchors Tell the Truth About Trump’s Witness Intimidation

Posted by on November 15, 2019 at 11:39 am. 7 Comments :

On Friday the Congressional hearing on Donald Trump’s impeachment continued with the testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, the former Ambassador of the United States to Ukraine. Most observers have noted that Yovanovitch is a respected diplomat whose decades of service to the country reflect her honor and honesty. That opinion, however, is not shared by the President, whose nasty animosity is starkly contrary to the consensus of those who know her and her work.

Fox News, Impeach Trump

While the hearing was in progress, Trump demonstrated his deep-seated fear of the consequences of Yovanovitch’s truthful and credible testimony. True to form, Trump grabbed his Twitter machine and lashed out savagely at her in a loathsome attempt to discredit an honorable public servant. Trump tweeted that…

First of all, the fact that Yovanovitch voluntarily served in “hardship” posts (or what Trump might call “shithole countries“) is evidence of her patriotism and commitment to the advancement of our national interests. She was not responsible for the adversity in those countries. To the contrary, she could be credited with mitigating the chaos and suffering they endured over many years prior to her tenure.

Trump’s tweets can only be interpreted as intending to intimidate this witness and discourage other witnesses from coming forward. It is a corrupt and potentially illegal act that exposes his consciousness of guilt and further incriminates him. That view is surprisingly shared by the principle “news” anchors at Fox News. Bret Baier was asked for his assessment immediately following the first session on the hearing. He said that…

“This whole hearing turned on a dime when the President tweeted about her real time. And during the questioning Adam Schiff stopped the Democratic questioning to read the President’s tweet to her and get her response. That enabled Schiff to then characterize that tweet as intimidating the witness, or tampering with the witness, which is a crime. Adding, essentially, an article of impeachment real time as this hearing is going on.

https://twitter.com/BretBaier/status/1195370139623010307

Not only did Baier identify the potential criminality embedded in Trump’s disparaging and threatening tweet, but he recognized that having tweeted while the hearing was still in progress was an unusual interruption that had a profound and improper impact. And he wasn’t alone. Fox’s Chris Wallace also commented on Yovanovitch’s testimony saying that “if you are not moved… by the testimony of Marie Yovanovich, you don’t have a pulse.” He went on to deliver a brief history of her sterling career with the State Department. And then he added that…

“I agree with Bret here that the really dramatic moment is that this wasn’t just testimony about the past. This played out in real time with the president attacking her and saying that every place that she served went bad. And she was asked by Adam Schiff, ‘Do you see that as an effort to intimidate you and other witnesses?’ And she said that ‘I feel that is quite intimidating.’ And that does raise the possibility of witness intimidation and witness tampering as a new charge here.”

It was not, however, all hearts and flowers at Fox News. Yovanovitch has been bitterly attacked by the usual suspects during Fox’s primetime (Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham) and their morning propaganda block (Fox and Friends, Outnumbered). Wallace alluded to this when he spoke of the “smear campaign that came from Rudy Giuliani and some of his cohorts and was repeated in some of the outlets in right-wing media.” What Wallace didn’t acknowledge is that Fox News is the most prominent of those right-wing media outlets that smeared her. And we can expect that to continue despite these rare and candid comments from Baier and Wallace.

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

UPDATE: As Fox took a break from the hearing, their senior Capitol Hill producer made the utterly irrelevant observation that “When we look at the U.S. Constitution and look at Article 2, Section 4, it doesn’t say anything about witness intimidation.” Of course it doesn’t. It also doesn’t say anything about murder, rape, bank fraud, perjury (see Bill Clinton), tax evasion, child pornography, cannibalism, etc. The Constitution never intended to itemize every possible illegal act that would warrant impeachment.

REALLY? Trump Complains About ‘TV Lawyers’ While Clinging to His Own TV Lawyers

Posted by on November 14, 2019 at 12:39 pm. 1 Comments :

No one is ever going to mistake Donald Trump for someone who can construct coherent analyses of current events. He has enough trouble pronouncing words with more than two syllables. Any sentence he utters risks contradicting itself before he reaches the period. And that’s not even considering the sheer volume of lies that flow from his infantile rhetoric and hostile bombast.

Donald Trump TV Set

Far too often Trump manages to express himself in ways that generate exasperated groans from people who remember when presidents were intelligent and articulate. And Wednesday was one of those days. Following the congressional hearings on his impeachment, Trump held a press conference with President Erdogan of Turkey. Naturally, there would be questions about the hearings, so you might assume that he would be prepared. Instead, Trump demonstrated that his thoughts on this critical and historic subject have the depth of an abandoned bird bath (video below).

The first question went to the friendliest of Trump-fluffers, a reporter from the rightist propaganda outfit, One America News Network (OANN). Her profoundly probing question inquired as to how Trump felt about how the hearings went. Gee, can anyone guess his answer?

Trump dished out every typical talking point that has fueled his robo-defense for the past several months. He sarcastically asked her if she was referring to “the witch hunt.” Then he said that “I haven’t watched for one minute,” despite having tweeted more than thirty times about it (although that wasn’t his his record). In true wannabe dictator form, he called it “a sham and shouldn’t be allowed.” He falsely asserted that “The Whistleblower gave a lot of incorrect information.” Nevermind that it was corroborated by Trump himself, as well as his Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney. He insisted that “All they have to do is look very, very simply at the transcript,” which explicitly affirms his guilt.

But even after all of that, Trump still had it in him to astound with his flagrant hypocrisy. Earlier that morning, Trump lashed out at Daniel Goldman, the lawyer that Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee appointed to question the witnesses. He whined that “I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers. They took some guys off television. I’m not surprised to see it because Schiff can’t do his own questions.”

First of all, Goldman may have been a legal analyst for a while with MSNBC, but he was also an assistant U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York for 10 years. The GOP’s lawyer (I guess they can’t do their own questions either) was Steve Castor, whose work has been limited to the Republican staff on the House Oversight Committee for the past fourteen years. More to the point, though, Trump is unleashing a bizarre complaint considering what he said in his press avail with Erdogan:

“If you read the transcript, this was analyzed by great lawyers. This was analyzed by Gregg Jarrett. It was analyzed by Mark Levin. It was analyzed by everybody. They said the call that I made with the president of Ukraine was a perfect one.”

Jarrett and Levin are both Fox News “lawyers” whose jobs are to appear on television as dedicated Trump-fluffers. They do not do any legal work at all. In other words, they are “TV lawyers.” And they are the only lawyers Trump could cite when looking for affirmation of his allegedly “perfect” telephone skills. What’s more, his personal attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, are frequent guests on Fox News. That’s where Trump saw them and subsequently hired them. So … more TV Lawyers. And all of them either working for, or closely affiliated with, Fox News.

As an aside, another pair of Fox News lawyers, the husband and wife team of Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, were briefly considered by Trump as additions to his personal legal team, but ultimately did not join up due to undisclosed “conflicts.” On Wednesday diGenova appeared on Fox News and made some of the most repulsive and bigoted remarks ever aired on Fox.

This is what you get when you elect a reality TV game show host with zero experience in government. Trump has no idea how to manage a large bureaucracy. And he doesn’t know any reputable attorneys other than those he sees on Fox News. The same goes for the secretaries in his Cabinet and the advisors on his White House staff. Trump is about as capable of putting together a competent team as your uncle in Alabama who watches Fox all day in his trailer park. And he’s even less aware of his own hypocrisies and ignorance.

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

https://twitter.com/owillis/status/1194729526623911937

Translating Trump’s Impeachment Video Wherein He Whines About What a Victim He Is

Posted by on November 13, 2019 at 11:11 am. 5 Comments :

On the morning that Congress began their impeachment inquiry, Donald Trump went bonkers with a frantic flurry of furious and fearful tweets. There were 24 of them – including 17 retweets from Fox News and other worshipful Trump-fluffers in the Congress and the press – all before 9:00 AM. It demonstrates a mindset of total desperation in advance of what he must know is serious legal and political peril.

Donald Trump Pacifier Fox

Among these Twitter tantrums was a brand new video that Trump produced to summarize his defense (see below). It’s typical of his whining that is such a painful embarrassment to the nation as its president – commonly regarded as the most powerful man on Earth – wallows in his victimhood and prostrates himself publicly in an attempt to avoid accountability.

Trump has shown an astonishing inability to comprehend the process that he’s entangled in. He could really use a remedial course in impeachment to even begin to grasp the situation. He still thinks that he’s entitled to due process during the impeachment’s investigative phase, which no investigation permits. And he has an intense yearning to expose the identity of the whistleblower, whose testimony is no longer needed because Trump publicly admitted to what the whistleblower alleged. His Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, also admitted it.

It’s in that state of open confession and willful ignorance that Trump put out his video. So let’s take a look at at it and translate his self-serving disinformation into what he was really thinking.

TRUMP: What’s going on now is the single greatest scam in the history of America politics.
REALITY: What’s going on now is likely to land me in prison and I don’t have a single substantive response. So I’ll lash out with a vague and vacant allegation for which there is no factual basis.

TRUMP: The Democrats want to take away your guns.
REALITY: The Democrats need to be absurdly accused of things that they have never advocated.

TRUMP: They want to take away your healthcare.
REALITY: And those accusations must include allegations that are better directed at me since all I’ve ever done is try to sabotage the healthcare of millions of Americans.

TRUMP: They want to take away your vote.
REALITY: Democrats want to take away my ability to steal elections by cutting off access to voting and conspiring with foreign dictators.

TRUMP: They want to take away your freedom.
REALITY: Democrats want to take away my freedom to lash out with bizarre and irrelevant outbursts stemming from my incoherent rage.

TRUMP: They want to take away your judges.
REALITY: And I might as well throw in exactly what I’ve been doing with the help Senate GOP Leader Moscow Mitch McConnell.

TRUMP: They want to take away everything.
REALITY: Oh hell, I’ll just throw in the friggin’ kitchen sink. None of what I’m saying makes any sense anyway.

TRUMP: We can never let this happen. We’re fighting to drain the swamp.
REALITY: We can never let people catch on that I’m the King of the Swamp.

TRUMP: And you see why we have to do it. Because our country is at stake like never before.
REALITY: I must be sure to fear monger so that my cult disciples will be suitably scared and blindly loyal.

TRUMP: It’s all very simple. They’re trying to stop me because I’m fighting for you. And I’ll never let that happen.
REALITY: It’s all very simple. I’m fighting for myself and any challenge to my aspirations to tyrannical authority will never be allowed.

Trump is residing in fantasy world that he desperately wants to invite his followers to move into. There is nothing in this video that even remotely refutes the allegations against Trump. But even worse, it is loaded with flagrantly untrue assertions and insults to his political foes. And this is his final retort as these historic hearings commence. That doesn’t bode well for his future if this is his best argument on his own behalf. But it’s good news for patriotic Americans who believe that people in power are not above the law.

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

Flaming Fail: Trump Fires at DACA and Makes a Total Ash of Himself

Posted by on November 12, 2019 at 11:32 am. 5 Comments :

On Tuesday morning the Supreme heard oral arguments on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case. They are determining whether or not to uphold the decisions by lower courts to overturn Donald Trump’s ruling to terminate the program and put the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” in jeopardy.

Donald Trump, Immigrant, Child

Dreamers are undocumented residents who were brought to the U.S. as children. Most of them grew up here and have never known any life in the native country of their parents, and don’t speak any language other than English. In order to be eligible for DACA status they must have no criminal record and must be productie residents who are either working, in school, or in the military. But despite these criteria, Trump has been attacking them for years with flagrant lies and defamation. And on the morning that the Supreme Court took up this case, Trump tweeted this atrocity:

It’s rather impressive how Trump can get so much wrong in 280 characters or less. Let’s dive into his staggeringly hateful and blatantly erroneous blather.

First of all: Trump leads off by insinuating there is some significance to the fact that some of the Dreamers have grown up and are no longer young. So what? That doesn’t negate the fact that they were brought here as children and know no other home. Trump’s only purpose in injecting this diversion is to imply that there is something untoward about them being adults. But it is entirely irrelevant to the discussion of whether they should be allowed to stay and earn citizenship.

Secondly: Trump falsely asserts that some Dreamers “are very tough, hardened criminals.” However, the program expressly requires that they have no criminal record. Trump is simply lying about this to smear the reputation of law abiding, patriotic, aspiring Americans. It’s not only dishonest, it’s repulsive and inhumane.

Third: Trump’s assertion that President Obama said he “had no right” to initiate the DACA program is another provable lie. PolitiFact reviewed previous claims by Trump on this subject and declared them “Mostly False.” Obama never said that he didn’t have the “legal right” to sign a DACA executive order. He merely said that he couldn’t unilaterally overturn existing laws. And he went on to state that, therefore, there was no legal impediment to DACA because it wouldn’t do that.

Fourth: Trump declares that if the Supreme Court rules against DACA, he would make a deal with Democrats to achieve the same objectives. But that’s a brazenly disingenuous offer. There is no reason he couldn’t have crafted a legislative solution with Congress long before this. He didn’t need a Supreme Court decision to do that. But instead, he personally killed every attempt by Congress to pass such legislation. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said that he wouldn’t advance any immigration bill unless Trump agreed to sign it in advance, which he never did.

Finally: Trump’s tweeted offer to support an immigration bill that allows Dreamers to stay in the U.S. is bizarre given his complaints in the same tweet. He is asserting that if the Supreme Court rules against DACA, he will support a bill permitting DACA recipients, who he says include “very tough, hardened criminals,” to stay in the country permanently. Really?

That is typical of the raging incoherence that infects virtually every policy position taken by Trump. He is profoundly ignorant and incapable of forming rational arguments. And that’s just another reason why he is utterly unfit to serve as president. He is not just an embarrassment to the nation, he is an imminent danger. But at least he is adept at cramming loads of gooey nonsense into his half-witted (at best) tweets.

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

Trump’s Twitter Frenzy Reveals His Sick Obsessions and Dangerous Incompetence

Posted by on November 10, 2019 at 11:35 am. 1 Comments :

Impeachment Is Coming! And Donald Trump is getting noticeably more nervous. His poll numbers are tanking, even among Republicans. Next week marks the beginning of the public phase of the impeachment inquiry with witness that are expected to provide further incriminating testimony. And many of these witnesses have first hand knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump regime and personal relationships with his closest advisors. For Trump and his gooey sycophants, it is not gonna be pretty.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

To the extent that someone with severe mental infirmities is capable, Trump is aware of the political and legal peril he is facing. And that awareness is manifesting itself in his favorite mode of communication, Twitter. Saturday’s Trump Twitter feed was fraught with fury and panic as he struggled to crawl out from under the rubble of his collapsing presidency. An analysis of the tweetery is both revealing and frightening. Here, by the numbers, are Trump’s Twitter tales for one day in the life of a drowning man.

  • Trump achieved what appears to be a record in the sheer volume of tweets with 82 for one day.
  • Of those, 58 were retweets.
  • 38 were blatantly self-defensive retorts to the impeachment inquiry.
  • Fox News appeared in 16 of the tweets.
  • 10 tweets bragged about his appearance at the LSU/ALA football game.
  • 8 more were shameless (and phony) self-promotions (books, polls, etc.).
  • GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin was retweeted 8 times with anti-impeachment arguments.
  • Gregg Jarrett of Fox News was also retweeted 8 times with various Trump-fluffing remarks.
  • And Trump retweeted himself 9 times.

The most prominent obsession evident in this tweetstorm is that 38 (65%) of Trump’s tweets were desperate attempts to shield himself from the ongoing impeachment inquiry. He has said in the past that impeachment would a good thing politically for him and his Republican Nationalist Party. Obviously, he didn’t believe that nonsense himself. His singular focus on this subject exposes just how terrified he is.

The 58 retweets (70%) suggest that Trump can’t keep up with the avalanche of bad news for him. So he needs to lean on the tweets of others, some of which are several weeks old. He even retweeted a month old comment by John Bolton, the National Security Advisor that he unceremoniously fired. And of course Fox News was a frequent guest in Trump’s Twitter ravings.

It’s also clear that Trump was bitterly hurt by reports of sports fans booing him at the World Series and the UFC fighting event. So he tried to make up for it by repeatedly posting videos of cheering crowds in bright red Alabama, where booing was expressly prohibited. Many of those videos were retweets from the Breitbart website, which isn’t exactly a reliable source.

What’s especially notable in this record is that there wasn’t a single tweet about any substantive issue that affects the American people. Not even about subjects he often clings to, including immigration, Syria, the economy, trade with China, jobs, etc. It was an 82 tweet cavalcade of corpulent conceit. Proving that if it isn’t about Trump, it isn’t worthy of his attention.

There are so many reasons why Trump is an imminent danger to the United States. He is a patently incompetent manager. He maligns treasured American principles on a daily basis. His attacks on the free press as “the enemy of the people” is a de facto attack on the Constitution. He disparages the nation’s intelligence community, and favors Russia over our own agencies. He behaves like a petulant infant, casting insults and reckless accusations at anyone who dares to challenge him. He mocks the settled science of climate change.

And now we can add to these threats his psychopathic narcissism that is so abundantly displayed in his tweets and other public comments. His unstable obsession with himself, and his glaring incompetence, is indisputable proof that he is a danger to America and the world. And the sooner he is impeached and removed from office, the sooner the world can exhale and experience some relief from the nightmare circus we have been suffering through.

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

CHOPPER TALK: Corrupt Donald Trump Tells Flagrant Lies About Pretty Much Everything

Posted by on November 8, 2019 at 12:46 pm. 4 Comments :

Our Reality TV president just released the latest episode of his long-running soap opera “Chopper Talk” (or more accurately “Whopper Talk”) wherein Donald Trump swaggers pompously before an assemblage of reporters as he ostensibly responds to questions with “answers” that, more often than not, ignore the reporter’s inquiry. His strained and frequently incoherent responses range from awkward deflections to outright lies. It’s a circus of self-serving propaganda that has no journalistic value whatsoever.

Donald Trump, Chopper Talk

There are many reasons that the press needs to stop covering these slack-jawed sideshows live. They provide almost nothing useful for viewers. Even worse, as Media Matters reports, is that Fox news continues to air all of Trump’s cult rallies live. CNN has cut back almost entirely, airing only ten minutes this year. MSNBC aired none of them.

However, there is one thing that comes from these loopy press avails. They allow a pathological liar to disgorge uninterrupted rants that sound very much like the schizophrenic on the street corner shouting epithets at passing cars. And in Friday’s instalment (video below) Trump was in rare form, excreting nonsense like a haywire word-salad shooter. Just a few of Trump’s fact-challenged falsehoods include…

“Adam Schiff is a corrupt politician. He’s corrupt. He made up a speech, and he put my voice in it.”

FALSE: Schiff merely paraphrased Trump and prefaced his remarks by saying explicitly that they were the “essence” of what Trump said, not a verbatim quote.

“Everyone of those people testified absolutely fine for me. […] You know I don’t even know most of these people. Many of these people I’ve never even heard of.”

FALSE: Most of the people Trump is talking about were appointed by him or by those he appointed. This is a common tactic that he uses to pretend he doesn’t know anyone who criticizes him. What Trump wants you to believe is that he never heard of his National Security Council Russia advisor Fiona Hill, his NSC Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman, his Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sonderland, his Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker, his Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, and his Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. If he really doesn’t know these high-level White House staffers, that’s just more proof that he’s unfit to serve.

“We are winning so big. My polls are the highest they’ve ever been. I’m leading in all of the swing states.”

FALSE: Trump’s poll numbers are as low as ever. They have hovered around 40 percent since his inauguration, and still do. And he is notably losing in many of the swing states.

And then there’s this: Trump unleashes a bizarre and incoherent rant that meanders from one subject to another without ever approaching reality. But he does manage to threaten to sue the whistleblower’s attorney of treason (which is ludicrous because you can’t sue for treason).

“The whistleblower, I call him the fake whistleblower. He gave a fake report of my phone call. And when I released that call, all of a sudden everybody disappeared. The whistleblower disappeared. What ever happened to the second whistleblower? Why isn’t the first whistleblower gonna testify anymore? You know why? Because everything he wrote in that report almost was a lie. Because he made a phony phone call. My phone call was perfect. He made it sound bad. That’s why I had to release. So the whistleblower is a disgrace to our country. And the whistleblower because of that should be revealed. And his lawyer, who said the worst things possible two years ago, he should be sued. And maybe for treason.

HUH? The whistleblower hasn’t disappeared. His/her identity is still under wraps, despite the efforts of right-wing media, including Fox News, who have offered up a name of someone they can’t confirm is really the whistleblower. And Trump’s “transcript” of his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky actually confirms the account by the whistleblower, making him/her irrelevant. But Trump’s reckless charges of treason demonstrate why truth tellers in government need the protection of whistleblower status.

The only benefit that can be derived from these demented outbursts is that they are further evidence that Trump is a severely disturbed psychotic who presents a clear and present danger to the nation. The media has a responsibility to refrain from airing his ravings live. They have nothing to lose by reviewing the video and airing it twenty minutes later with added context and fact-checking. And if they don’t take that simple step they are aiding and abetting Trump’s deranged campaign of propaganda and lies. That is dangerous and contrary to the mission of the free press and ethical journalism.

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

Fox News Bosses Told Hannity and Other Trump-Fluffers Not to Identify Whistleblower

Posted by on November 6, 2019 at 3:03 pm. 3 Comments :

The right-wing media machine has been chomping at the bit to expose the identity of the intelligence community whistleblower. He/she has been at risk since filing a complaint with the Inspector General regarding Donald Trump’s “quid pro quo” phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. That complaint led to Trump being pressured to release a “summary memo” of the phone call, that he falsely asserts is a verbatim transcript.

Fox News, Sean Hannity, White House

Ever since the complaint was filed, Trump has been rattled and fearful due to the obvious legal jeopardy that it puts him in. He has repeatedly tweeted “READ THE TRANSCRIPT” in an effort to exonerate himself. Nevermind that even his edited memo incriminates him further. Trump’s desperate objections have wandered into deranged territory. And subsequent to the whistleblower’s complaint, additional witnesses and evidence has emerged that make his/her account moot.

Nevertheless, Trump and his propagandist media continue to demand that the whistleblower’s identity be revealed and that he/she testify in person before Congress. That would violate the security measures that the whistleblower statutes were designed to protect. And it would subject the whistleblower to potential harm. Consequently, Fox News found it necessary to advise their on-air “personalities” to refrain from reporting the alleged name of the whistleblower that has been floating around in wingnut media circles. CNN acquired a copy of the Fox News memo and reported that…

“…on October 31, a Fox executive sent an email to staffers that said the network had not ‘independently confirmed [the] name or identification of the anonymous whistleblower.’ A copy of the email was obtained by CNN Business.

“The executive further advised production staffers to ‘NOT fulfill any video or graphic requests’ related to the whistleblower’s identity.”

Among the hosts on Fox that were given these instructions was Sean Hannity. CNN reported that Hannity claimed to have “confirmed independently” the identity of the whistleblower, but declined, so far, to name the person on air. “But you know what?” Hannity said, “I will play the game for a little bit.” Then he pretended to not be afraid of being sued by the whistleblower’s attorney.

CNN’s report also included a paragraph that should be required in every article about Fox News:

“Much of Fox effectively operates as a messaging arm of the White House. Its opinion hosts have defended the President at nearly every turn, and the network employs a stable of pro-Trump contributors who appear throughout the day to offer commentary. Fox’s news anchors and journalists also frequently cover the day’s news from angles beneficial to the Trump White House.”

Well said. But Fox’s admonition to it’s personnel is not likely to be sufficient protection for the whistleblower. Hannity and others on the network have defied their bosses before, with little or no consequences. And people like Sen. Rand Paul are also claiming to know the whistleblower’s identity and threatening to release it. The StormTrumpers are fully prepared to violate the whistleblower statute without concern for the his/her welfare, or for the principle of confidential reporting of wrongdoing in the government.

Their intention is to scare off any other potential whistleblowers who discover criminal or unethical behavior. Which is a pretty good indicator that there is more illegal activity that has yet to be revealed. Hopefully, the patriots in government will stand strong and do what’s right despite these threats. They are a lifeline to keeping government honest and holding wrongdoers accountable.

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

Trump’s Dementia Kicks In, Whining that the Whistleblower Must and Must Not Testify

Posted by on November 4, 2019 at 11:28 am. 4 Comments :

This is the latest chapter of the Trump Impeachment Saga: The Walls are Closing In. And as they do Trump becomes ever more deranged and incoherent. He knows that his support, even among Republicans, is rapidly deteriorating. He knows that he has no comprehensible response to the charges against him. He’s scared witless of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. And he’s reduced to behaving like a cowardly victim of the gathering hordes of enemies his paranoia imagines are surrounding him.

Trump Fear

It’s a pathetic spectacle that is plain to see by most Americans (who favor his impeachment and removal from office), as well as our allies and foes around the world. And he’s getting noticeably worse as more evidence and witnesses become available to the public. Trump is on a downward spiral that is manifesting in everything he does and says.

On Monday morning Trump provided a profoundly disturbing example of his mental decline. Within his regularly scheduled tweetstorm, he ranted about what he’s now calling a “Witch Hunt Hoax.” That used to be the investigation into his unsavory connections to Russia, but has now been rebranded for the Ukraine affair. Among the tweets he posted were these bizarre comments:

“…all you have to do is read the transcript of the call, you do not need Never Trumpers or other witnesses to say what it means or says. It is plainly and very well stated for all to see.

“There is no reason to call witnesses to analyze my words and meaning.”

“The Whistleblower gave false information & dealt with corrupt politician Schiff. He must be brought forward to testify.”

So Trump is adamant that there need not be any testimony by anyone regarding his extortion of Ukrainian President Zelensky while seeking dirt on Joe Biden. But he’s just as adamant that the testimony take place. How his diseased brain synchronizes those contradictions is a mystery. He has been repeatedly insisting that people “read the transcript.” Of course, many people have already done this and were thus persuaded that Trump is obviously guilty of pressuring Zelensky and demanding a quid pro quo. The “transcript” (which was really just a memo summarizing the phone call) explicitly referenced Trump’s request for “a favor” that he directly associated with an improper probe of the Biden’s.

Furthermore, Trump doesn’t feel that it’s necessary for others to analyze his words. Well, except for his GOP defenders and Fox News. He posts endless videos from those “analysts” on Twitter. And he maligns anyone who dares to find any critical messaging as “Never-Trumpers,” despite having no evidence whatsoever that they were political opponents. What’s more, Trump declared that the whistleblower should not be permitted to provide written answers to the investigators. Although that was perfectly permissible for himself when he answered questions for Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump’s tweetery about the “transcripts” has also recently swerved into lunatic territory with allegations that Rep. Schiff (to whom Trump has applied the anti-Semitic nickname, “Shifty”) would “change the words that were said to suit the Dems purposes.” Nevermind that they were all prepared by committee staff that included Republican members, and their accuracy would be easy to confirm. Trump also tweeted a confession that his actions constituted a quid pro quo, but which he falsely claimed wasn’t impeachable.

Don’t hurt yourself trying to figure out how any of Trump’s tirades make sense. They don’t. They are blatant machinations designed to confuse and frustrate those delving into his criminal activities. And they have been constructed by a mind that has lost all connections to reality. His comments on Twitter and his “Chopper Talk” press avails are increasingly incomprehensible. We are watching a developing paranoid psychosis in real time and on public platforms. And it isn’t pretty.

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

Fox News Poll Proves that Trump Voters are Willing Captives of a Cult

Posted by on November 3, 2019 at 11:23 am. 14 Comments :

In the past couple of weeks, Donald Trump has been crowing about what he says is unprecedented unity within the Republican Party. He couldn’t be more wrong. Trump repeatedly cites a 95% approval rating for him by GOP voters. That’s a false stat for which he never bothers to provide a source. Most other polls put it in the low 80s at best, and it’s heading down. Even Trump’s favorite, ultra-biased pollster, Rasmussen, is showing him near his lows for the year.

Donald Trump, MAGA

However, there is an argument that Trump can make regarding the devotion of his dwindling cadre of supporters. They are enraptured by their Dear Leader to a degree unseen since the Manson Family. And a new poll by Fox News confirms that the worshipful adoration of Trump’s glassy-eyed followers is a powerful force, albeit only effective on a small minority of the electorate. The Fox News poll reveals that a majority 53% of voters want Trump to be impeached. And 49% want him impeached and removed from office. But the most notable figures in this poll address the subset of Trump supporters:

“Among those opposing impeachment, 57 percent say nothing could change their mind, while 34 percent say new evidence could make them support impeachment. […and…] over half of Republicans (53 percent) say it is generally okay for the president to ask foreign leaders for help in going after his rivals.”

So a majority of those who are currently against impeaching the President won’t change their minds regardless of the evidence. That means even if a “smocking“ gun is found that incriminates him for treason, they will still back Trump. These are the people that Trump was talking about when he said that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any support.

This is not the sort of movement that is generally associated with a political campaign. It is the defining characteristics of a cult. Trump’s followers don’t care whether he broke the law, or breached his oath of office, or violated the Constitution. They don’t even care about his policies that are demonstrably worse for them than for the public at large. They only care about genuflecting before “The Chosen One” (as he calls himself).

The poll has other bad news for Trump that is also ignored by his faithful Deplorables. It found that he is underwater on immigration (40% approve, 57% disapprove), foreign policy (37-56), and health care (35-53). He has a slim 3-point margin (49-46) on the economy. What’s more, Trump is shown to be losing to the top four Democrats included in the survey: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Hillary Clinton. Although why Fox polled Clinton is a mystery, or perhaps wishful thinking.

Trump spent much of Sunday morning tweeting about his pathetic victimhood. Which is a peculiar position for someone who occupies what is often called the most powerful office on Earth. Much of his whining featured praise for the One America News Network (OANN), a channel so tiny that Nielsen doesn’t track their ratings. This must be part of his campaign to drive his followers away from Fox News, which he said “doesn’t deliver for US anymore,” and declared that “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet.”

So the cult is shopping around for a network that will be more complimentary and obedient. It’s hard to imagine that Fox News wasn’t sufficiently fulfilling that objective. But then, Fox is having problems of its own as their ratings have sharply declined lately. That’s more likely due to viewers tiring of the bias and lies, than to Trump’s temper tantrums. But he certainly isn’t doing Fox any good. Which just happens to be quite good for the rest of us.

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

The Trump Sycophant ‘Softball Question of the Year’ Award Goes to Fox News – Again

Posted by on November 2, 2019 at 12:26 pm. 1 Comments :

Donald Trump is turkey-neck deep in an impeachment inquiry that is accumulating evidence faster than it can be processed. At any other time in history, this much proof of criminal behavior and obstruction of justice would have been more than sufficient to shame the president from ever showing his face in public. He would have been humiliated as well prosecuted, and would have jumped ship long ago.

Donald Trump Fox News

However, in these peculiar times we have a president who is buttressed by a propaganda network that lavishes him with undying praise, defends him from any and all criticism, and maligns his political foes as schemers, liars, and even traitors. The worshipful devotion of Fox News to Trump and his regime is unprecedented. Many of their former employees are now on the White House payroll. Likewise, many former White House staff are now working for Fox.

Making matters worse, Trump’s current Press Secretary, Stephanie Grisham (who is a certified “Deep State” conspiracy kook), has never held a single press conference. She has literally moved the media functions of the White House into the Fox News studio, which is the only place she ever appears before the public. This, of course, is fine with Fox because it gives them exclusive coverage of the Trump administration’s official disinformation. They are also the only network that still airs Trump’s lie and hate filled cult rallies in full and uninterrupted as they happen.

In an especially slobbering segment on Friday (video below), Grisham was “interviewed” by Fox’s Bill Hemmer. Naturally, the subject of impeachment came up and Hemmer forged valiantly into the fray with what is undoubtedly the softest ball thrown at a presidential spokesperson this year – maybe ever. It is truly impressive how Grisham managed to muddle through this wet kiss interrogation that began with Hemmer asking…

It seems as if you have concluded [impeachment] is a foregone conclusion. And if the president believes that as well, how has he described his feelings to you about that potential reality?

Feelings? Seriously? Hemmer is hammering Grisham by demanding that she dig deep and reveal Li’l Donnie’s unspoken feelings about becoming just the third president ever to be impeached. As if Trump has any “unspoken” feelings. And if he does, the last person to disclose them honestly is his designated disseminator of deception. Grisham responded with a flurry of robo-talking points:

He has described his feelings to the American people. You just have to look at his Twitter feed to show. This is a sham and a kangaroo court. This has been unjust and unfair. The president did absolutely nothing wrong. We released the transcript weeks ago for everybody to see. There was no quid pro quo. The Ukrainian government themselves has said they felt absolutely no pressure. Aid was eventually released to the Ukraine.

Someone needs to reprogram Grisham. She is stuck on auto-spew, and even so, is digging Trump into a deeper abyss of political and legal jeopardy. Her reference to the “transcript” (which was really just a summary memo of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky) works against Trump’s interests. Although Trump has also been obsessed with what he is lately saying is an exact, verbatim transcription of the phone call. It isn’t, and it says so on the first page. Nevertheless, Trump has repeatedly tweeted exhortations to “READ THE TRANSCRIPT!” One has to wonder if he has read it, because it indisputably incriminates him. For instance, after Zelensky raises the issue of U.S. military aid, Trump replies…

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”

That’s a textbook quid pro quo. Trump talks about getting some information related to a debunked conspiracy theory about a computer server that belonged to the Democratic National Committee. But he quickly segues from that to explicit requests for dirt on Joe Biden:

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with [Rudy Giuliani and] the Attorney General [William barr] would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”

That sounds horrible to a lot of people, but not for the reasons Trump is thinking. Trump recently suggested that he would like to have a nationally televised “fireside chat” wherein he would read the “transcript” to the American people. That’s a great idea, because we would then have him saying in his own voice the words that warrant his impeachment. Then Grisham could return to Fox News where they could ask her how he feels about making an ass of himself and being booted from the White House.

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