Donald Trump: Women Are Gossipy Hens Who Can’t Be Trusted With Classified Info

The Republican Party’s current (and cringeworthy) front-runner for the nomination for president, Donald Trump, is infamous for his repugnant views on women. His openly derisive rhetoric is so notorious that he was even questioned about it by Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in the first GOP primary debate. Following that exchange Trump actually ended up providing more evidence of his misogyny by singling out Kelly, the only woman debate moderator, for despicable criticism and insults.

Donald Trump Perv

Apparently, that wasn’t a sufficient demonstration of hostility toward women, so Trump is upping the ante with a new line of attack aimed at Hillary Clinton and her long-time aide, Huma Abedin. In remarks yesterday to his glassy-eyed disciples, Trump assumed his characteristic schoolyard bully stance to level charges against Abedin that were purely slanderous and without any factual basis whatsoever.

Trump: “Huma Abedin is married to a bad guy. Anthony Weiner is one of great sleazebags of our time. So Huma is getting classified secrets, she’s married to Anthony Weiner, who’s a perv. If you think that Huma isn’t telling Anthony, who she’s probably desperately in love with, in all fairness to Anthony, because why else would she marry this guy? Do you think there’s even a 5% chance she’s not telling Anthony Weiner, now of a public relations firm, what the hell is coming across?”

First of all, for Trump to assail Anthony Weiner, or anybody else, as a “sleazebag” takes a boatload of chutzpah. After all, Weiner was only guilty of sexting online and was never unfaithful to his wife, to whom he is still married. Trump, on the other hand, has cheated on his multiple spouses and even been accused of rape by one of them. And in an appearance on The View he said that if Ivanka were not his daughter “perhaps I would be dating her.” A perv who lusts after his own daughter and betrays his marital oath ought not to be calling other people names.

More importantly, the truly offensive part of Trump’s comment is the assertion that Abedin is incapable of conducting herself as a professional. Simply because she is a woman Trump believes that she would disclose classified information to her husband in violation of the law and the ethical requirements of her position. Because obviously, in his view, women cannot be trusted in sensitive jobs due to their biological compulsion to gossip.

This raises some interesting questions. Does he also believe that the women in the Bush administration were leaking secrets to their spouses? Is he disqualifying Carly Fiorina, or any other woman, from serving in government because she represents a security risk? Would Trump make the same charge against a man in a similar position? And if so, is he admitting that he would blab state secrets to his current wife Melania?

This was not a flip remark by Trump. When he made it originally he also asked the women in his audience to confirm his opinion. When a women in the crowd said that she would not reveal classified info to her husband, Trump shouted back contemptuously “You would,” in effect calling her a liar who would put national security at risk because of her unsuitability for the job and the inherent flaws of her gender. Remember, that was one of his supporters. And to seal the deal, Trump tweeted the same insult to Abedin this morning that he made in his speech yesterday.

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It is really mind-boggling that any women, or men who respect them, would cast a vote for this neanderthal. But even worse, the other women and men in the GOP have been completely silent about this rebuke. Fiorina has not mentioned it. Nor has Trump’s BFF, and self-anointed Mama Grizzly, Sarah Palin. None of the other candidates seem to be disturbed by the suggestion that all women are gabby turncoats who would sellout their country for some good pillow talk. Which proves again that Trump is not a problem for the Republican Party. He IS the Republican Party. And his noxious ideas will remain a core part of their agenda even after his inevitable flame out.

Wingnut West Point Prof Calls For Military Attacks On Media, Lawyers, And Teachers

The Conservative Society of Slobbering War Mongers has a new hero today in the form of freshly minted West Point Academy professor. William Bradford has been with the academy less than a month and has already embarrassed it profusely.

West Point Fox News

As reported in The Guardian, Bradford is arguing for the deliberate destruction of Islamic holy sites, without regard for civilian “collateral” damage, in a campaign that would mirror the mindless brutality of ISIS. But his sadistic savagery doesn’t stop there. He also accuses critics of the war on terrorism of being a treasonous “fifth column” who are subject to attack as if they were the same as any other enemy combatants. Those critics include “law school facilities, scholars’ home offices and media outlets where they give interviews.” Bradford characterized legal scholars as a…

“…super-weapon that supports Islamist military operations” aimed at “American political will” to fight. They are supported by “compliant journalists” marked by “defeatism, instinctive antipathy to war, and empathy for American adversaries”

So Bradford believes that having dissenting views, particularly those aimed at peaceful resolutions to international conflict, are tantamount to treason. He believes, therefore, that American academics and lawyers who have views that differ from the Masters of War can lawfully be terminated in their homes and offices by military bombing raids. And their accomplices in the media who exercise the constitutionally protected freedom of the press are equally at risk for the same deadly fate. This is a view so perverse that Bradford’s superiors at West Point are already distancing themselves from his bloodthirsty lunacy saying that…

“The views in the article are solely those of Dr Bradford and do not reflect those of the Department of Defense, the United States army, the United States Military Academy.”

Furthermore, the National Security Law Journal where Bradford’s tirade was published is now calling it a “mistake” and an “egregious breach of professional decorum,” along with this apology that was posted on their website:

“We cannot ‘unpublish’ it, of course, but we can and do acknowledge that the article was not presentable for publication when we published it, and that we therefore repudiate it with sincere apologies to our readers.”

It is surprising that this slimeball would be employed at West Point in any capacity. Particularly after discovering that he lied about his previous employment as an associate professor at the National Defense University (which NDU denies). Even worse, he was caught stealing the honor of legitimate veterans by claiming to have served in Iraq during Desert Storm and being awarded a Silver Star. None of which is true.

A far better place of employment for him would be Fox News where he could join the reprehensible Lt. Col. Ralph Peters as a strategic analyst and contributor. Peters has long held that the killing of non-combatants, women, children, allies. and even our own troops, was justifiable in war. He believed that the U.S. would be irresponsible if it did not adopt the tactics of our enemies, atrocities and all. And his barbaric philosophy also included support for military attacks on the media saying…

“…the neo-pagans who dominate the media serve as lackeys at the terrorists’ bloody altar. […] Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media.”

Bradford and Peters share the same noxious disregard for humanity. Their open indifference to murdering the innocent, and especially their fellow Americans who happen to be lawyers, educators, and journalists, ought to be sufficient to banish them to the fringes of society with the rest of the depraved vermin who lust for another holocaust. They certainly should not be teaching at West Point or bloviating on television.

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Buried By Fox News: Shooting Of SF Woman By Immigrant Was An Accident

Last month Kate Steinle was killed while walking with her father on a pier in San Francisco. Her tragic death very quickly took on a tabloid hue as conservative media outlets latched unto the news that an undocumented immigrant was arrested for the crime.

To the political opportunists exploiting this tragedy it was a chance to vilify all immigrants as menacing invaders who will eventually resort to committing atrocities. Fox News in particular went to great lengths to build a narrative of legions of “illegals” swarming the nation and randomly murdering innocent citizens.

Fox News

Because the suspect, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had recently been released from custody by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, the issue of “Sanctuary Cities” became a central target of the media criticism. Bill O’Reilly took a leading role in the fear mongering and even launched a drive to pass what he called “Kate’s Law:” legislation that would impose a mandatory five year sentence for undocumented aliens who are deported and return to the United States.

The merits of such a law could be reasonably debated, but the partisan atmosphere surrounding its introduction and its advocacy by an alleged “news” network were entirely inappropriate and created a distraction from the substance of the matter. What’s more, O’Reilly’s hypocrisy was evident in that he never advocated for legal remedies following the deadly shootings in a Lafayette movie theater, or a Charleston church, or a Connecticut elementary school. In those cases there was no convenient scapegoat to demonize, just the shared constant of gun violence which right-wingers regard as an acceptable consequence of their perceived right for any person to bear any arms at any time or place.

In addition to O’Reilly’s activism, the proposed bill was taken up by at least two Republican presidential candidates. Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a draft of the bill in the Senate. But it was Donald Trump who elevated the issue to ludicrous heights. He brought it up repeatedly during his campaign stump speeches and used it as a perverse affirmation of his previous racist comments aimed at immigrants who he called criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. Never mind that the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. has a lower rate of criminal activity than native-born citizens. So far as Trump is concerned, having one example of a felonious immigrant is enough to label all immigrants as felons.

There is just one problem. Now that the conclusion jumpers have made their case against Lopez-Sanchez in the Steinle matter, the inconvenient unveiling of facts discovered from the actual police investigation are getting in the way of their anti-immigrant narrative. It turns out that the shooting might not have been a senseless act of brutality by a foreign animal. The evidence presented in the suspect’s preliminary hearing by a police inspector indicates that Steinle’s death appears more likely to have been an accident.

“The single bullet that struck and killed Kate Steinle, 32, in broad daylight on San Francisco’s Pier 14 in July appears to have ricocheted off of the pier walkway prior to hitting her, according to expert testimony provided Wednesday during the second day of the murder suspect’s preliminary hearing. Officials say the gun Francisco Lopez Sanchez is accused of firing was not actually pointed at Steinle, but at the ground.”

So this wasn’t a case of a sub-human alien thug mindlessly exterminating America’s helpless womenfolk after all. This evidence is consistent with reports published following the arrest of Lopez-Sanchez who told the police in his confession that he had found the gun and fired it accidentally. It’s a striking new development that destroys the right’s ability to exploit this affair to further vilify immigrants.

So how does Fox News handle these revelations? By ignoring them entirely of course. After making the Steinle killing a staple of their programming for weeks, Fox has not aired a single story about the disclosures in the preliminary hearing. And naturally, Bill O’Reilly said nothing about it on his program last night. This new information is a complete embarrassment for O’Reilly and his network who mischaracterized the facts for their own purposes before they actually had any. So now they have to suppress the story in order to keep from having to apologize and retract their prior biased reporting.

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This, however, is standard operating procedure for Fox News. They have never been concerned about factual reporting. Their entire reason for being is to propagandize on behalf of an extreme right-wing agenda. Therefore, early speculative stories that cast negative aspersions on their ideological enemies are broadcast frequently and with little vetting. But when exculpatory evidence later becomes available it is dismissed and ignored so as not to contradict their previous false perversions of journalism. It’s dishonest, irresponsible, unethical, and it’s the Fox way.

Donald Trump Is Right! The Media Is ‘Ridiculous’ For Covering Him Live

The Doctrine of the Broken Clock has come into play with some recent remarks by Republican front-runner Donald Trump. That is, despite distinguishing himself as being wrong about pretty much everything, he said something that happens to be worth consideration without even knowing it.

Donald Trump

It was at a rally in Alabama (video below) where Trump assumed a mock state of despair and complained that…

“Every time I go on television it’s gotta be live. It’s live. I said ‘Oh, can I have a rest please?’ Tonight it is live on Fox. Who likes Fox? I like Fox. It’s live on CNN. Who likes CNN? And it’s live on MSNBC, right? How come it always has to be live? Why don’t they just cover me like anybody else where they go the next day and they show little clips? Every time I speak it has to be live. It’s ridiculous, but it’s OK. Right? We have to suffer with it.”

Exactly! What is wrong with the media? Even after Trump taunts them about how tightly they are wound around his fat finger, they still bow down to him. Even after he correctly notes that it’s ridiculous, they persist in following him around like lovesick puppies. Even though there is nothing in Trump’s stump speeches that makes them newsworthy, other than some fresh bit of noxious racism or ignorance, his arrogant mugging is carried live. His circus sideshow offers no justification for preempting regular programming to broadcast his ego-ranting as if the fate of the nation depended on it, but they do it anyway. Why?

There is no precedent for how the media is covering this carnival barker. No other candidate gets this much attention. Could it have something to with Trump’s reality show persona, his penchant for dumbfounding soundbites, and the media hunger for ratings? Obviously it does. But none of that falls within even the broadest definition of news, and the media is whoring itself in a quest for ratings and the advertising dollars they bring.

Even Bernie Sanders, who is outperforming Trump by every metric, isn’t treated this way. That’s right, Sanders is beating Trump in head-to-head polling. He is drawing bigger crowds. He has better (i.e. positive) favorability ratings. And while Trump’s popularity is a media-hyped myth created by the quantity of GOP candidates, Sanders is popular with a broad cross-section of the American electorate. What’s more, when Sanders speaks he actually addresses real problems and offers real solutions, as opposed to Trump’s vapid cliches and narcissism. True, Sanders doesn’t have a hat with an asinine slogan on it that bitches about America not being great, but his hair is at least as notorious. Still, no live coverage for him because the press knows that he isn’t likely to start screaming the “N” word or slap an immigrant orphan across the face.

The media should cover Trump like any other candidate. No more, no less. By arbitrarily providing live broadcasts of only his campaign speeches they are violating their professional duties by serving as the PR team for one candidate. Trump’s public appearances are pep rallies for his own aggrandizement, not news events. Even his press conferences have no business getting live coverage. When has the media done that for any other candidate?

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The live coverage needs to stop, or at least be reserved for only events that warrant it for their news value. Absent that, the networks should register as lobbyists for the candidate and be required to report their airtime as in-kind donations to the campaign. This used to be true mainly for Fox News, but now all the cable news networks are exhibiting the same lack of journalistic ethics to benefit a raging demagogue whose primary appeal is that he could spontaneously combust at any moment.

[Update] As evidence of the faulty priorities of the press, President Obama gave a speech today in New Orleans on the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that was properly carried live by all three cable news nets. Well, except for Fox News who cut away after less than two minutes. So for a presidential commemoration of an historic event that devastated a major U.S. city, cost the lives of more than 1,800 Americans, and displaced tens of thousands more, Fox News could only spare a little over a minute. But for Trump’s stump speech they stay live for an hour or more.

Reporters Shot On Live TV: Glenn Beck Says God Did It To Warn Him

Today another tragedy occurred when a gunman took the lives of two innocent people in the course of doing their jobs. Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were shot by a former colleague, Vester Lee Flanagan (aka Bryce Williams), as they were conducting an interview. And predictably the media has sprung into action with blanket coverage that is mostly comprised of repetition, speculation, and sensationalism.

The other predictable response comes from self-interested parties who seek to gain attention and support by exploiting the pain and grief of the victims. Already Breitbart News has published an article with a belligerent headline that baselessly declared the crime to be a Race Murder In Virginia.” Rush Limbaugh used the story to advocate for arming all reporters as if there is a raging war on journalists. Never mind that all the evidence currently shows that this was a workplace dispute where the workers just happened to be in local television reporting. And Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, in the early hours of confusion following the murders, complained that they haven’t been designated a hate crime.

Glenn Beck Messiah

However, what appears to be the most perverse and far-fetched take on the matter so far came from Glenn Beck (video below). I know, try to contain your shock. Beck sees something far more consequential than the sad reality of lost lives due to a disturbed individual with access to a deadly weapon. For Beck this was a message direct from God to him:

“I think God is giving me one final warning. He’s telling us, ‘You got one more chance, this is it.’ I’m telling you this is it … This is God saying, ‘Last chance.'”

Beck went on to remind his radio disciples that fifteen years ago he said that if…

“…you ever start to hear me reading right from the Scriptures, you know we’re at the end. I’m reading today right from the Scriptures … I’m telling you, as we watch things like a shooting on television and a shooting in the street, this is the beginning of sorrows. This is the beginning!”

Setting aside that Beck can’t seem to make up his mind as to whether this is the beginning or the end, he is plainly convinced that the shooting in Virginia was the work of God who did it to warn Beck of impending doom from the Heavens. The fact that a disgruntled ex-employee killed his former colleagues, something that unfortunately happens with a fair degree of frequency, is proof to Beck that the Lord is losing patience with the human race and is about to condemn us to eternal damnation. Of course, Beck has made predictions of The Perfect Storm that would herald the End Times in the past so often it is more like a running joke than a prophecy.

The depressing inevitability of opportunists taking advantage of tragedy is a sorry statement on the nature of our society. But it is a constant that can be predicted with near total accuracy. What is sometimes less predictable is just how low these callous vulgarians can sink.

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Be Afraid: Following Trump Focus Group, Fox News Word Doctor’s ‘Legs Are Shaking’

There is a palpable fear within the Republican Party that is directly attributable to the alleged popularity of their resident loudmouth blowhard and racist demagogue, Donald Trump. The fact that Trump’s offensive reality show antics has dominated the GOP primary, effectively suppressing the media presence of every other candidate, is causing the party regulars to tremble at the notion that he might actually have a shot at the nomination (he doesn’t).

Donald Trump

While their fear of Trump prevailing in the primaries is largely unfounded, they are right to be mortified by what Trump’s success with some Republican voters means to the party and its prospects in the general election next fall. He is cementing the party’s reputation as antagonistic to minorities and political moderates, but even worse, he is appealing to an ignorance that is rampant on the right.

To illustrate the frightful attitudes of Trump’s supporters, Fox News “Word Doctor” Frank Luntz conducted a focus group to find out what drew them to the cartoon-brained billionaire. The results painted a picture of a community of dunces who have mistaken being vulgar and obnoxious for straight talk. After listening to the group, Luntz, who Trump has called a “a low class slob,” told the assembled reporters that…

“You guys understand how significant this is? This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking. I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them. Donald Trump is punishment to a Republican elite that wasn’t listening to their grassroots.”

What a load of bull. If Republicans have anything to fear it is the Frankenstein monster of their own making. If they need to wake up it is from the nightmare doomsday scenarios that they have been promulgating for the last seven years that portrayed President Obama as a dictator who would destroy the economy, confiscate their guns, outlaw Christianity, and declare the country the new capital of the Global Islamic Caliphate.

The grassroots of the GOP didn’t abandon the party. They were shuffled into a Tea Party subdivision that has been whining about exactly the same things that Trump’s supporters are whining about. In fact, Trump has assumed the mantle of Tea Party leadership that Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and others tried and failed to assume. He isn’t punishment for not listening, he is the manifestation of having listened and taken their idiotic yammering seriously. Some of the reasons given by the group for supporting Trump were indistinguishable from the bellyaching of the Tea Party. For instance…

  • “I think America is pissed. Trump’s the first person that came out and voiced exactly what everybody’s been saying all along.”
  • “When Trump talks, it may not be presented in a pristine, PC way, but we’ve been having that crap pushed to us for the past 40 years.”
  • “I used to sleep on my front porch with the door wide open, and now everyone has deadbolts. I believe the best days of the country are behind us.”
  • “I’m frustrated beyond belief. I feel like I’ve been lied to. Nothing’s getting better.”
    “We know his goal is to make America great again. It’s on his hat.”
  • “We’ve got to show the Republicans that we’ve had it with them, that we will not be there every single time. They treat us like crap and they lie to us and promise us things and then they expect us to vote again.”
  • “He’s not afraid. He keeps prodding on even if people give him negative press. He doesn’t change and apologize.”

These cretins are articulating a cacophony of contempt for America. They are inconsolable that it doesn’t resemble the fantasy they have of the white, Christian, utopia they think they were promised by God who wrote the Constitution. What’s more, they are achingly stupid. They blindly repeat the mantra that Trump is expressing what they feel, but Trump hasn’t offered any actual policies that address any real problems, so how do they know? Well, they know because it’s written on his hat. So there.

The responses from this focus group are not unique. Last month John Heilemann of Bloomberg News assembled a focus group that felt pretty much the same way. What’s interesting about this is that the character traits for which they praise Trump would be considered abhorrent if they came from Obama. If the President was described as speaking for people who were “pissed,” who thought America’s best days are behind us, didn’t care about negative press, and refused to apologize, these same Trumpbaggers would holler at the top of their lungs about what an arrogant, unpatriotic, egotistical, fascist he is.

It isn’t Trump they like. It’s the undisguised hatred and bigotry aimed at the real objects of their disgust. That begins with our African-American President and extends to all progressive sectors of society including Latinos, women, union members, teachers, scientists, and an array of diverse spiritual and secular citizens. It is not surprising that Trump’s most staunch supporters are America’s white supremacists, who regard him as the champion of disaffected whites. Although Trump espouses a platform that is identical to that of every other Republican candidate, his supporters prefer him because the others aren’t as crude or as perceivably filled with hate.

So these focus groups serve a valuable purpose in exposing Trump’s followers as the hostile and ignorant swine that they are. And to the extent that other Republican candidates, voters, and media fail to renounce it, they are just as bad. That’s what should be making Mr. Luntz’s legs shake.

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The Hysterical List Of GOP Candidates Proposed By America’s Worst Pundit

If there is one thing that the candidacy of Donald Trump has taught us, it’s that the current batch of Republican candidates is a sorry collection of losers. After all, if they can’t beat a cheesy, egomaniacal, reality TV star like Trump, how can they take on Vladimir Putin?

Bill Kristol

Trump’s domination of the Republican primary is an indictment against the entire field. Candidates like Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Chris Christie were supposed to be governors with the sort of leadership experience that would command respect and support. Upstarts like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio were expected to fire up the conservative base. Instead, they are all gasping for air as Trump’s media-infused marketing blitz leaves them in the dust. And the consequences of his racist diatribes and appeal to rank ignorance will only weigh down the eventual nominee after Trump flames out.

That scenario was depressing enough to one of the GOP’s chief pundits that he set out to identify alternatives to the current roster of pending duds. Bill Kristol authored a column for his Weekly Standard that pitched the names that he believes can redeem the faltering fortunes of the party. And if the failures presently in the running weren’t depressing enough, just wait until you get a load of Kristol’s proposed saviors.

Leading off is former governor of Indiana, and Director of George W. Bush’s Office of Management and Budget (something I would leave off of my resume), Mitch Daniels. If he were a contestant on “So You Think You Can Bore The Sh*t Out Of Everyone” he would be shoe in. Why Kristol thinks this human sedative would have a chance of lapping the current field is unfathomable. But then Kristol offers up another numbers nerd with an equal absence of charisma, Rep. Paul Ryan. Ryan, of course, already demonstrated his inability to appeal to a national electorate as the running mate of Mitt Romney.

Assuming those were Kristol’s heavy hitters, he continued with his list of party savers by suggesting three congressmen that he says are “young but tested leaders:” Jim Jordan, Trey Gowdy and Mike Pompeo. Setting aside that about 99% of the country hasn’t heard of any of them, if they had they would not be especially impressed. The only one with any notable role in public life is Gowdy, who chairs the Congressional Committee on Politicizing Benghazi. And like all of the other committees that have investigated the subject, he has found nothing that points to any wrongdoing by President Obama or anyone in his administration. It’s just another waste of time and money that keeps Congress from doing anything useful.

Perhaps the most curious person on Kristol’s list is Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Here is someone without a smidgen of government experience or aptitude. He is considered to be one of the most ultra-conservative justices ever to sit on the high court. An Alito candidacy would only appeal to hardcore rightists and Tea Partiers who comprise a small minority of the population.

Kristol is a well known flop as a pundit and is frequently referred to as Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol. Rachel Maddow did an informative segment last year (video below) that enumerated his lengthy list of failed political predictions. They include such classic favorites as insisting that the war in Iraq would only last a couple of months, and his rabid advocacy of Sarah Palin to be John McCain’s running mate, with whom he would be assured victory. The sole positive purpose of his existence on Earth is to be used as signal for what NOT to do politically.

Therefore, the Republican Party should be grateful for the list of proposed candidates that Kristol has provided. And if they are smart (which I wouldn’t bet on) they will immediately cross those names off of any lists they are making themselves. Then again, it’s not like they could do any worse than what they have now. Maybe they should just throw caution to the wind and nominate Zombie Ronald Reagan or Rush Limbaugh with Ted Nugent as VP.

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The One Trick To Keep Your Phone Company From Spying On You

Last week an investigation by ProPublica and the New York Times was published that exposed the collaboration between the National Security Agency and America’s providers of cell phone and Internet services. The report was based in part on documents released by former agency contractor Edward Snowden. What it revealed was a tight-knit relationship between a government spy operation and the corporate telecommunications industry.

AT&T NSA Spying

The report identified AT&T as the company most closely aligned with the NSA’s operations. While Verizon and other companies were also involved, AT&T was shown to have devoted far more energy and resources to the relationship. The report says that…

“While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed NSA documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as ‘highly collaborative,’ while another lauded the company’s ‘extreme willingness to help.”

There is much more detail about the NSA/telecom complex in the report, including the hundreds of millions of dollars spent and the over 1.1 billion domestic cellphone calling records a day handed over to the government. It is an astonishing and frightening series of disclosures about just how intrusive the company you’re paying every month to provide phone and/or Internet service is.

And therein lies an important way for you to fight back. There isn’t much you you can do to prevent these corporate behemoths from screwing you. Sure, you can participate in protests and write letters to your congressional representatives, and you should. But that will take time and furious organizing. The one trick you can use now to keep your phone company from spying on you is to ditch the companies that are doing it and get one that doesn’t.

Those of you who use AT&T or Verizon (and that’s most of you) have another option. CREDO Mobile is a progressive company that is committed to privacy and doesn’t favor wealthy conglomerates who can afford to pay for special treatment and to suppress competition. As an added bonus they also fight for the environment, social justice, net neutrality, and a political landscape free of Tea Party idiocy.

It’s so easy to make the switch you’ll wonder why you never did it before. You’ll get great service and a selection of the best phones. You can keep your current phone number. And they will pay up to $350.00 for any early termination fees your current provider charges. You can even try it for thirty days with no obligation. You really need to check this out because there is no reason for your hard-earned dollars to be working against you by violating your constitutional liberties and literally funding the Tea Party, the KeystoneXL pipeline, the Koch brothers, and the Greedy One Percent (aka GOP). And if you use this link, you’ll even be helping News Corpse, who will receive a modest commission for the referral.

So please take this simple step to change the world and free yourself from the shackles of corporations who are working against you and your principles. You’ll feel great for having done so. And send this link along to your friends and family as well. We can have a huge effect if we join together for something positive, rather than submitting to the corporate masters.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

And just for fun, here is John Oliver taking on “Cable Company F*ckery” in case you needed another reason to switch.

Did James O’Keefe Send His Goons To Smear The Hillary Clinton Campaign?

Conservative muckrakers have been very busy lately producing deceptive videos that deliberately slander Democrats and progressive organizations. It has become their favorite method of spreading malicious lies via dishonest editing and unsupported allegations. Most notably of late are the videos that falsely portray Planned Parenthood as engaging in various unlawful practices.

Fox News James O'Keefe

The technique was famously employed by serial liar James O’Keefe when he produced videos wherein he pretended to be a pimp in order to damage the reputation of ACORN, a philanthropic organization that helps the poor obtain housing and register to vote. Although the videos were proven to be political disinformation, they resulted in ACORN losing funding and eventually shutting down. Later O’Keefe was sued by a former ACORN staffer and was ordered to pay $100,000 judgment for his libel. On subsequent projects O’Keefe was caught trying to seduce a CNN reporter, cast illegal votes, and tamper with the phones of a United States senator. For that offense O’Keefe was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty after his felonies were bargained down to misdemeanors.

So it was just a matter of time before this craven tactic was aimed at the campaign of a prominent Democrat running for high office. Time is reporting that…

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign offices around the country have been put on alert after at least two women approached Iowa staff under the guise of being supporters in an apparent effort to catch the campaign engaging in improper or illegal activity, a Clinton campaign official said.”

As described by Time, the modus operandi is typical of methods used by O’Keefe and company. There are even photos of some of the con artists sent to scam the Clinton campaign. One woman in the photos is a known operative who has worked with O’Keefe in the past. Time further reported the account of the attempted scam given by Clinton’s spokesperson:

“A Clinton campaign official alleges that the women engaged in several efforts to entrap supporters. In one scheme, described by Clinton staff, a woman attempted to pass a cash donation to Clinton volunteers and interns. In another, a woman approached the campaign on Aug. 19 and said both her parents had donated to Clinton the legal maximum of $2700 each and wanted to funnel an additional donation through their daughter, a violation of federal law. On Aug. 13, a woman claiming to be Canadian approached another Clinton fellow to ask how to falsify an address for a campaign donation.”

At this time it appears that the political dirty trickery failed. But just the fact that these cretins are out there trying to pull off their hoaxes is troubling. The possibility of a naive campaign volunteer getting fooled or being subjected to a video manipulation that casts them in a negative light is always a risk. Not that it proves any wrongdoing by the campaign, but it takes time and effort to debunk the lies and some people (e.g. Fox News viewers) will believe them no matter how ridiculous.

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And that’s pretty much the point. They know that they can have a deleterious effect even if exposed as crooks. Let’s hope the Clinton campaign, and every other potential target of these charlatans, remains vigilant and wards off their attempted scams.

Hillary Clinton’s Fox News Problem

This evening on Fox News Shannon Bream, filling in for Megyn Kelly, did a segment about how dismal Hillary Clinton’s future is now that her poll numbers have descended to unfathomable depths, particularly with regard to favorability.

Hillary Clinton Favorability

Like much of the rest of Fox’s recent coverage of Clinton, the impression made is that Clinton has about three weeks before she will drop out of the race and report to prison. To open the segment Bream gleefully reported that…

“A new poll now showing Clinton may be more disliked than she has been in decades. As a brand new survey from CNN shows her unfavorability rating is now at a whopping 53%. A number that Clinton has seen just one other time in twenty-three years of polling.”

What the “fair and balanced” propagandists at Fox are leaving out is that Clinton’s favorable rating in the CNN poll that they referenced is better than all of the Republicans that were polled. Clinton scored 44% favorable. That compares to Donald Trump at 36% and Jeb Bush at 34%. What’s more, Clinton’s unfavorable rating is lower than her most likely opponents. She pulled 53% while Trump and Bush were higher at 59% and 56% respectively.

Clinton has had the honor of being ranked as the most admired woman in the world nineteen times in Gallup’s annual survey. She received that honor the last thirteen years in a row. It is not particularly surprising that in an election year where seventeen Republican candidates are bashing her relentlessly her public image might suffer. Add to that the effect of the smear job that Fox engages in every day and it would be a miracle if her numbers didn’t decline a bit.

Notwithstanding those assaults, Clinton is still faring better than her GOP rivals who have had very little mud thrown at them. She is still beating them in head-to-head match-ups. And her support in the Democratic Party is unwavering.

What Fox News is trying to do is project their open disgust for her in the hopes that it will harm her electoral prospects next year. That’s also why they keep promoting Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. They obviously hate them just as much as they hate her, but for the time being they are happy to use them as wedges to create chaos for the Democrats.

News Corpse Presents: The ALL NEW 2nd volume of
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

If Clinton’s 53% unfavorable rating can be characterized as “whopping” by Fox News, then what would they call Trump’s 59% or Bush’s 56%? Of course the answer is that they wouldn’t call it anything at all because they wouldn’t devote a segment of a primetime program to their “favorability problems.” In the Fox world everyone loves Republicans and they always will win every election. At least that’s how they present it to their dimwitted audience who are later shocked when they lose.