Month: June 2016

The Heinous Political Opportunism Of Fox News On The Orlando Massacre

Posted by on June 12, 2016 at 12:25 pm. 23 Comments :

The sad reality of having to cover yet another incident of mass gun violence in America is made all the worse by the revolting political opportunism of the knee-jerk hate mongers at Fox News. In the early hours of Sunday morning in Orlando, Florida, a gunman entered a nightclub with an AR-15 and other weapons and murdered fifty innocent people, wounding more than fifty others. It’s a tragedy that calls for the uniting of all Americans against the insanity that produces these maniacs.

Fox News

However, instead of seeking the unity and solace that the nation so desperately needs at times like this, Fox News ventured off into a flagrantly biased political diatribe against President Obama (video below). Fox and Friends co-host Tucker Carlson was interviewing an author and alleged expert on terrorism when he asked the following question:

“Doesn’t the politicization of all of this, the relentless lying by the administration about the Islamic terror threat we face make it harder for people to want to step forward and say what they see?”

Carlson’s question is so rife with hypocrisy and hatred it is difficult to know where to begin. First of all, it is Carlson who is responsible for “the politicization of all of this.” Most of the people in positions of authority are withholding comments until more facts are known. The only statement from the administration was an acknowledgement of the horror of terrorism, committment to its defeat, and expressions of condolences. Carlson’s question is itself political in nature and aimed at maligning the president he hates.

Secondly, there is absolutely no evidence of “lying by the administration about the Islamic terror threat we face.” That’s a scurrilous fabrication straight from the warped mind of an anti-Obama bigot. The Obama administration has forthrightly addressed the terrorist threat and has done more to combat it than any other president in history. Under his direction the American military has killed or captured hundreds of terrorist leaders and operatives, including Osama Bin Laden, a task that President Bush was unable to achieve for seven years.

For the host of an alleged “news” network to make such reprehensible comments, only hours after the slaughter, while the victims and their families are still grief-stricken, is not unusual for Fox News. They have engaged in similar politicization of tragedies as disperse as Benghazi, Paris, Aurora, Newtown, and San Bernardino. It didn’t make any difference if the crimes were related to terrorism or not. They were always somehow the fault of President Obama.

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

Fox News is brazenly catering to the hatred of their audience. This is all to common for Fox as documented in The Collected Hate Speech of the Fox News Community. All it takes is brief glance at the comments on Fox’s website to see that the political obsessions and biases expressed by Fox anchors is mirrored by their viewers. These are just a few of the vile outbursts on their Orlando article:

foxnews-comments-orlando-terror

Watch Tucker Carlson and his nauseating friends on Fox News:

Is Fox News Shielding Donald Trump From Release Of Damaging Courtroom Video?

Posted by on June 11, 2016 at 2:38 pm. 6 Comments :

News organizations generally favor having access to as much information as possible. It is, in fact, their mission to compile as much raw data on a subject as they can in order to present a complete account to the public. It is almost unheard of for a media company to decline to advocate for access to relevant information, particularly from a government or legal entity. And yet, that is exactly what Fox News is doing.

Trump News Channel

A motion filed Friday with the U.S. District Court in San Diego is petitioning for the release of video depositions of Donald Trump made in connection with the fraud case against him and his defunct Trump University. And, yes, that’s the same court presided over by Judge Gonzalo Curiel who Trump has been attacking in a baseless and racist effort to smear the judge as unfair.

The videos referenced in the filing have the potential to reveal a more accurate representation Trump than the one he carefully crafts with his media and public appearances. The motion was filed on behalf of every major television news network (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN), as well some of the most prominent newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune).

Well, make that “almost” every major television news network. There are a couple of conspicuous holdouts who have not joined this filing, most notably Fox News. Along with Fox, the Wall Street Journal, another cog in Rupert Murdoch’s media machine, did not participate in the filing. This raises questions as to whether Fox News is deliberately abstaining so as not to harm the electoral prospects of the candidate they openly support, or to avoid aggravating Trump and thus lose access to his frequent and profitable appearances on the network (he has boycotted Fox News in the recent past). Another more fanciful theory is that Trump has dirt on Fox News, and/or its CEO Roger Ailes, and is steering clear for fear of retaliation.

The motion filed by the press succinctly describes the argument in favor of releasing the videos. It’s an argument that rests on the public’s right to know and the importance of transparency during a presidential campaign. The opening paragraphs say…

“For many years, Defendant Donald J. Trump has been at the center of an ongoing controversy over his namesake, Trump University (“TU”). This lawsuit – one of several actions alleging that TU defrauded its customers and encouraged their participation in the volatile late-2000s real estate market – drew significant public attention even before this year’s Presidential election.

“Now, Defendant is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and has made his business acumen an important element of his campaign. Thus, this lawsuit not only raises important questions about Defendant and his organization, it has become a prominent electoral issue. Opposing candidates have pointed to the allegations in this case in criticizing Defendant’s qualifications for the presidency; Defendant has cited TU as an example of his business success, and made this litigation itself a campaign issue.

“Given the undeniable and substantial public interest in these proceedings, the need for transparency could not be greater.”

Trump’s legal team is, predictably, opposing this motion, although they have not yet laid out the details of their rebuttal. But it’s one thing for Trump’s lawyers to argue against releasing material that will prove detrimental to his case and reputation. It’s their job to insulate him from legal jeopardy. However, it is not the job of Fox News, or any media enterprise, to protect Trump from embarrassing disclosures and to help him keep such information from the public.

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

By their conspicuous absence as plaintiffs in this filing, Fox News is signaling both their allegiance to Trump and their contempt for a free press. While they often feverishly complain that President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democrats lack transparency, Fox is demonstrating that their “fair and balanced” slogan is nothing more than a phony marketing gimmick. If the court rules in favor of this motion Fox News will almost certainly air the videos that become available. But look for them to air along with vigorous defenses of Trump and attempts to dismiss their relevance and malign his critics. It’s the Fox News way.

Fox News Inspired Terrorist Gets Probation For Plotting To Massacre Muslim-Americans

Posted by on June 10, 2016 at 5:20 pm. 4 Comments :

In May of last year a radical Christian extremist was arrested for plotting a terrorist attack on a community of peaceful Muslims in upstate New York. Robert Doggart, an ordained minister in the Christian National Church, pleaded guilty to a detailed plan to kill people and destroy buildings, churches and schools. Fox News, however, failed to report this story because any terrorist who isn’t Muslim or otherwise dark-skinned isn’t worthy of coverage.

Fox News

Doggart, whose original guilty plea was rejected by the judge (who filed new, more serious indictments against him), has been free on bond ever since and his case is still pending. However, a comrade in arms, William Tore Tint, has just pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the same activities as well as lying to FBI investigators. Tint was recorded plotting with Doggart to kill people and burn down buildings. Following his plea Tint was sentenced to only three years probation.

Neither of these stories were reported by Fox News. That in itself may not be surprising as Fox doesn’t regard any terrorism committed by white Christians, or anyone other than Muslims, to be newsworthy. In fact, they don’t even regard it as terrorism. What makes this extraordinary is that Fox News likely served as an inspiration for the crime.

You have to ask where Doggart and Tint got the groundless notion that the residents of Islamberg were jihadists in training. In January of 2015 Bill O’Reilly hosted Ryan Mauro, a “national security analyst” who claimed that Muslims were forming “no-go zones” in the United States where they would train and launch domestic attacks. These claims were never substantiated by credible sources in law enforcement, and the organizations to which Mauro belonged were well known anti-Islamic propagandists. These views were repeated on Fox News by other anchors and pundits across the Fox schedule for weeks.

This is not the only time that Fox News has inspired terrorism. Last year a San Diego man pleaded guilty to a charge of making a criminal threat directed at the offices of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. His lawyer offered a defense that included the claim that he had problems with alcohol, anxiety and depression and had just finished watching a week of Fox News coverage on the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. Two years ago an Indiana man pleaded guilty to arson for having set fire to an Islamic Center in Toledo, Ohio. When the judge asked him if he knew any Muslims or what Islam is he said “No, I only know what I hear on Fox News.”

If any of these criminals were dark-skinned Muslims Fox News would be running video of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan non-stop. They would be ratcheting up the Islamophobia across every program on the network. And they would be frightening their viewers with unfounded generalizations about imminent doom. Of course Donald Trump would be tweeting up a storm and blaming it all on President Obama. But since these were white Christians it wasn’t even worth a mention between segments on summer barbecues and Hooters.

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

Terrorist Color Chart Fox News

Fox News Is Ramping Up Their Flagrant, Dishonest Smearing Of Hillary Clinton

Posted by on June 10, 2016 at 1:32 pm. 2 Comments :

This week saw Hillary Clinton become the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States, an historic achievement as the first woman to do so. She also got the endorsement of President Obama and other party leaders. These events affirm that the 2016 general election has officially commenced. And with that. Fox News is rolling out its quadrennial blitzkrieg of smears and lies aimed at all things Democrat, and specifically Hillary Clinton.

Yesterday on Fox & Friends, the Curvy Couch Potatoes latched onto an interview Clinton gave to Scott Pelley of CBS New wherein she was asked the sort of tough question that Fox insists the lamestream media never ask her:

“It’s possible that your biggest obstacle is not your opponent but yourself. Fifty-two percent of the American people who participated in our CBS news poll have an unfavorable opinion of you. That is the highest negative impression of anyone ever nominated by the Democratic party since we started asking that question in 1984. Do you bear any responsibility for that?”

The Fox Newsers then spent several minutes lambasting Clinton for her answer which they portrayed as refusing to accept any responsibility. To them it was further proof of her arrogance and dishonesty. The only problem with that is the substance of her actual answer (video).

Fox News

“Oh, I’m sure I do, but I think when I was secretary of state and serving our country, I had an approval rating of 66 percent, and I think it’s fair to ask, ‘Well, what’s happened?’ And what’s happened is tens of millions of dollars of negative advertising and coverage that has been sent my way.”

So right up front Clinton explicitly acknowledged that she bore responsibility for the public’s perception of her. The fact that she went on to cite other contributing factors doesn’t diminish what she said. And the ability of the media to influence public opinion is something that conservatives are usually the first to complain about. However, that criticism of the press is apparently off-limits to Clinton. The same subject, with the same dishonest spin, was also discussed later on Fox’s Outnumbered.

Today, another Fox News distortion of reality was broadcast following a White House press briefing. Fox News told their gullible viewers that Press Secretary Josh Earnest had confirmed that the FBI probe into Clinton’s email is a “criminal” investigation.

Fox News

Once again, there is a small problem with that characterization: It isn’t remotely true. Fox was referring to this exchange between Earnest and Fox’s correspondent, James Rosen:

Rosen: So when a career prosecutor or an FBI agent who’s working on the Clinton investigation hears this President speak openly of how he wants Hillary Clinton to succeed him, you don’t think that that career prosecutor or that FBI agent takes that as some indication of how the President wants to see this case resolved?
Earnest: No. I think that those career prosecutors understand that they have a job to do, and that that job that they’re supposed to — which is to follow the facts, to pursue the evidence to a logical conclusion — that that is a job that they are responsible for doing without any sort of political interference. And the President expects them to do that job. […] That’s why the president, when discussing this issue in each stage, has reiterated his commitment to this principle: that any criminal investigation should be conducted independent of any sort of political interference.

Clearly Earnest was not referring to the Clinton case in that response. He was articulating a general principle of judicial propriety that is practiced by any White House. Had he been referring to the Clinton case he would have said “this criminal investigation,” rather than “any criminal investigation.” His statement was meant to be taken more broadly as a principle, just as he described it.

What’s more, Rosen’s question was downright stupid. The notion that a president expressing support for another candidate from the same party is not exactly a revelation. If investigators were susceptible to such pressure, they wouldn’t need Obama to announce his support in order to know that he backs Clinton. That should be obvious to anyone who isn’t desperately trying to construct a dishonest narrative. So it can be assumed that the investigators were already aware of Obama’s position with regard to Clinton. If Rosen had evidence that they had any bias toward Clinton, he would have presented it. Instead, he just floated some wild conspiracy theories. And even after that, Fox still felt they needed to lie about the answer given by Earnest.

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

Expect much more of this to come as the campaign proceeds toward November. Fox knows that all they have is lies and they will pour them out by the buckets full for the next four months. This says something about the dearth of negative information held by Fox. If they had anything truthful with which to skewer Clinton, they wouldn’t have to lie so badly or so frequently.

WATCH: Donald Trump Gets Roasted By Elizabeth Warren On Fire

Posted by on June 9, 2016 at 8:00 pm. 2 Comments :

Today was a busy news day for political junkies. Leading off was the official endorsement of Hillary Clinton by President Obama. Obama released video of his support following a White House meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders. However, what is likely to be best remembered is the scorching treatment Donald Trump got from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the woman he derisively and offensively calls “Pocahontas.”

Elizabeth Warren

In a speech before the American Constitution Society, Warren held nothing back as she blistered the GOP’s most embarrassing nominee in decades. The best way to appreciate this is to watch the whole speech yourself (video below), but here are some choice excerpts. Warren began by setting up the problem:

“What we’ve seen over the past three years, accelerating over the past three months and even the past three weeks, is alarming. Powerful interests are launching a full scale assault on the integrity of the federal judiciary and its judges.”

Warren went on to criticize Republicans in Congress for trying to “undermine the fundamental principle of equal justice under law” by “extremist Republicans who reject the legitimacy of President Obama” in order to “advance the agenda only of the wealthy and powerful.” She tied all of this to the unprecedented obstruction of Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s appointment to the Supreme Court, who Senate Republicans refuse to even consider.

And then she put forth the main event: “Even disqualifying judges based on their professional background isn’t enough for Donald Trump.”

“Trump tells everyone who will listen that he is a great businessman. But let’s be honest. He is just a guy who inherited a fortune and kept it rolling along by cheating people. And you know, when that’s you’re business model, sooner or later you’re gonna run into legal trouble. And Donald Trumphas run into a lot of legal trouble.”

This was Warren’s introduction to her commentary on Trump University. She noted that Trump’s own former employees referred to it as “one big fraudulent scheme.” She also pointed out how Trump U’s playbook directed his salespeople to target financially vulnerable victims who would be unable to fight back.

Warren’s speech also covered Trump’s vile, racist attacks of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the Trump U case in San Diego. She noted that Trump sent his “army of surrogates” out to smear Curiel and ridiculed Trump’s theory that his “own bigotry compromises the judge’s neutrality.”

“As all federal judges, Judge Curiel is bound by the federal code of judicial ethics not to respond to these attacks. Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself. Exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully.”

Then Warren outlined the heroic record of Curiel, a man who served as a prosecutor who took on Mexican drug cartels at risk to his own life. He lived for a year in seclusion, under the protection of federal agents. He was later appointed to a California state court by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then to the federal bench by President Obama. It is a record of honor that Warren then contrasts with Trump:

“That’s what kind of a man Judge Curiel is. What kind of a man is Donald Trump? Donald Trump says that Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. No Donald. You should be ashamed of yourself. Ashamed for using the megaphone of a presidential campaign to attack a judge’s character and integrity simply because you think you have some God-given right to steal people’s money and get away with it. You shame yourself and you shame this great country”

Warren continued…

“Donald Trump says ‘they don’t look into what Judge Curiel is doing because Judge Curiel is a total disgrace.’ No, Donald, what you are doing is a total disgrace. Race-baiting a judge who spent years defending America from the terror of murderers and drug traffickers simply because long ago his family came to America from somewhere else? You Donald Trump are a total disgrace.”

The distinctions between Judge Curiel and Donald Trump could not be more stark. And Warren laid them out with righteous vigor:

“Judge Curiel is one of countless American patriots who has spent decades quietly serving his country. Sometimes at great risk to his own life. Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraid who has never risked anything for anyone and who served no one but himself.”

With that Warren promised that Trump would “never be President of the United States.” Then she made sure to tie Republican leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to Trump’s bigotry. She called Trump a Mitch McConnell kind of candidate who would “execute a full-scale assault on the integrity of our courts.” And she said that the GOP wants the law to tilt “in favor of big businesses and billionaires,” they just want Trump to “quit being so vulgar and obvious about it.”

Warren closed with a rousing appeal to activism saying that…

“Now is not the time to stand by. Now is the time to stand up.” And that “We will not allow a small, insecure, thin-skinned, wannabe tyrant, or his allies in the Senate, to destroy the rule of law in the United States of America”

This speech is well worth watching in full for the inspirational drama it provides. You can be sure that Trump will watch it and respond with some asinine and insulting crack about “Pocahontas” or what a loser she is. Rest assured that he will not respond with anything substantive to the issues she raised because he is simply incapable of doing so.

[Update: As predicted, Trump responded in his typically juvenile way with a tweet saying “Pocahontas is at it again! Goofy Elizabeth Warren, one of the least productive U.S. Senators, has a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice.” No substance, no counter-argument, no sign of intelligent life, just insults]

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

Not Satisfied With Destroying The GOP, Donald Trump Is Also Destroying Fox News

Posted by on June 9, 2016 at 12:28 pm. NO Comments :

There is a rapidly escalating sense of desperation on the part of the Republican Party. More and more GOP politicians and pundits are publicly expressing their dismay, if not outright disgust, for Donald Trump as their nominee for president. Conservative radio talker Hugh Hewitt is even advocating that the party dump Trump at their convention next month or “get killed” in the November election.

Fox News Donald Trump

Now there is evidence that it isn’t just the GOP that Trump’s hateful rhetoric and childish demeanor are bringing down. TVNewser is reporting that the Nielsen ratings for last Tuesday’s primary night show Fox News getting knocked off of their top tier status among cable news networks:

“CNN was No. 1 in the key A25-54 demo […] And in a rare occurrence, MSNBC topped Fox News in the demo in both prime time (8 p.m. – 11 p.m.) and extended coverage (7 p.m. – 2 a.m.) MSNBC finished No. 2 in total viewers from 10 – 1 a.m. ET.”

It’s one thing for CNN to rank first in the ratings, which they have done several times in the past year. But for Fox News to be losing to perennial third-placer MSNBC is a monumental failure that indicates much deeper problems for both the network and the Republican Party for which it shills. This upset on primary night is significant because it reveals that the television audience in general is keenly interested in Hillary Clinton’s victory and historic achievement as the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party. At the same time it shows that Fox’s viewers were too depressed to even tune in, except for the brief remarks made by Donald Trump and his new friend, the TelePrompter.

It should come as no surprise that Trump’s affect on Fox News has produced negative results. He has been perhaps the harshest critic of the network, despite the fact that they have coddled him and devoted more of their airtime to him than to any other candidate. For that generosity Trump unleashed a non-stop tirade against numerous Fox News personnel. As News Corpse reported in April:

Ordinarily, any Republican candidate would be conscious of the sway that Fox holds over the party and the fate of anyone hoping to rise up in it. But Trump, with an apparently reckless lack of concern, has spent much of the last nine months mercilessly battering the network and its staff. He said of Megyn Kelly that she “is the worst” and has a “terrible show.” He called Karl Rove a “total fool” and “a biased dope.” He said that George Will is a “broken down political pundit” and “boring.” Chris Stirewalt was deemed “one of the dumbest political pundits on television.” Trump laughed off Charles Krauthammer as “a totally overrated clown,” “a loser,” and “a dummy.” And wrapping up the whole network for his disapproval, he tweeted that he was “having a really hard time watching Fox News.” Then he called on his followers to boycott the network. He even went after one of the major shareholders of Fox’s parent corporation.

Now that Trump is the GOP’s nominee, his legions of glassy-eyed disciples are all too happy to obediently shun Fox News. And the rest of Fox’s audience is cowering under the covers, too afraid to turn on the television and be faced with the reality of an imploding Republican campaign and a Hillary Clinton presidency.

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

Trump’s contribution to the decline of both the Republican Party and its media mouthpiece, Fox News, is certain to exacerbate the anxiety of the nation’s right-wingers. This may not be what Sarah Palin meant when she called Trump “a golden wrecking ball.” But in an oddly ironic twist of fate, America’s Democrats and liberals might want to send The Donald a thank you note.

Where’s The Wingnut Outrage? Donald Trump Doesn’t Believe In American Exceptionalism (Video)

Posted by on June 8, 2016 at 10:33 am. 3 Comments :

For the past eight years Fox News has raked President Obama over the coals alleging (falsely) that he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism. It became a fixed component of their formulaic anti-Obama messaging that dove-tailed with their attacks on his patriotism and demands to see his birth certificate. They wanted to know how he could possibly be president if he didn’t have an all-consuming sense of national superiority.

If you love America so much why don’t you marry it?

Pee Wee Donald Trump

For the record, Obama frequently articulated a deep and personal gratitude for his homeland and cited his own remarkable career as evidence of what makes America exceptional. But that wasn’t enough for the tunnel-blind Fox Newsers and Republicans who don’t see or hear anything that conflicts with their bigoted preconceptions.

So what will they do now that Donald Trump has explicitly said that he doesn’t believe American exceptionalism, as he did recently at a meeting of Tea Party “patriots” in Texas? Do you think the GOP and Fox zombies will mind? Try and wade through this dialogical disgorgement to see exactly what Trump thinks of the country he says he will make great again:

“I don’t like the term. I’ll be honest with you. People say, ‘Oh he’s not patriotic.’ Look, if I’m a Russian, or I’m a German, or I’m a person we do business with, why, you know, I don’t think it’s a very nice term. We’re exceptional; you’re not. First of all, Germany is eating our lunch. So they say, ‘Why are you exceptional. We’re doing a lot better than you.’ I never liked the term. And perhaps that’s because I don’t have a very big ego [audience laughs] and I don’t need terms like that. Honestly. When you’re doing business — I watch Obama every once in a while saying ‘American exceptionalism,’ it’s [Trump scowls]. I don’t like the term. Because we’re dealing — First of all, I want to take everything back from the world that we’ve given them. We’ve given them so much. On top of taking it back, I don’t want to say, ‘We’re exceptional. We’re more exceptional.’ Because essentially we’re saying we’re more outstanding than you. ‘By the way, you’ve been eating our lunch for the last 20 years, but we’re more exceptional than you.’ I don’t like the term. I never liked it. When I see these politicians get up… ‘the American exceptionalism ‘- we’re dying. We owe 18 trillion in debt. I’d like to make us exceptional. And I’d like to talk later instead of now. Does that make any sense? Because I think you’re insulting the world. And you, know, Jim, if you’re German, or you’re from Japan, or you’re from China, you don’t want to have people saying that. I never liked the expression. And I see a lot of good patriots get up and talk about Amer… — you can think it, but I don’t think we should say it. We may have a chance to say it in the not-too-distant future. But even then, I wouldn’t say it because when I take back the jobs, and when I take back all that money and we get all our stuff, I’m not going to rub it in. Let’s not rub it in. Let’s not rub it in. But I never liked that term.“

Did you sort of get the feeling that Trump doesn’t like the term American exceptionalism? If you managed to make it through that nearly incoherent rambling, you will also have noticed that, not only does Trump not believe that America is exceptional, he doesn’t believe it’s even adequate. He rattles off a long list of failings that portray a “dying” America as inferior to many other nations who are “eating our lunch.” No wonder he titled his book Crippled America.

The question now is whether Fox News and the robo-conservatives will hold Trump to the same standard that they held Obama. Will they condemn him as traitorous and unfit to lead a nation of patriotic narcissists? Or will they convince themselves that this never happened and their hero is still the anointed orange savior of America? I think we already know the answer.

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

Donald Trump Continues To Unravel, Barking At Surrogates And Calling His Staff Stupid

Posted by on June 7, 2016 at 9:06 am. 5 Comments :

DONALD TRUMP: I’ve always won and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.

The warning signs of an acute mental breakdown are becoming ever more apparent as Donald Trump slips into the abyss of his own hatred and narcissism. In a conference call today with his key campaign surrogates, Trump unloaded both barrels in a fit over how they are covering for his racist attacks on a U.S. District Court judge.

Donald Trump

The Honorable Gonzalo Curiel is presiding over the case wherein Trump University has been charged with fraud. But Trump has been baselessly accusing him of being unfair due to his Hispanic heritage. Never mind that Trump has not provided a single example of an unfair ruling, or that Trump has not made any motions to have the judge removed from the case, he is doubling and tripling down on his public slander of the jurist who is prohibited by judicial ethics from responding.

And now Trump’s rapidly declining mental state is on full display. As reported by Bloomberg News, today’s conference call clearly showed the strain the affair is having on Trump. He was barking at his own supporters and complaining about their insufficient efforts to back up his blatant bigotry. At one point former Arizona governor Jan Brewer spoke up to advise Trump that an email from his campaign had asked the surrogates to stop talking about the case. Enraged, Trump bellowed “Take that order and throw it the hell out.” He demanded to know who sent the email, and upon learning the name he continued repudiating the email and the sender, who he said he didn’t know. Then he asked…

“Are there any other stupid letters that were sent to you folks? That’s one of the reasons I want to have this call, because you guys are getting sometimes stupid information from people that aren’t so smart.”

Note that the stupid people to whom he is referring are his own staff. The email was copied to the highest levels of Trump’s campaign including his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and his press secretary Hope Hicks. So he can’t argue that this was all done under the radar by a junior staffer. Nor can he issue blanket insults about the intelligence of his employees and continue to claim that he hires the best people. What does this say about his potential cabinet appointments or Supreme Court nominations?

Trump went on to urge his surrogates to more aggressively defend him and aim their attacks directly at the media. He said that “The people asking the questions — those are the racists. I would go at ’em.” He failed to explain how reporters asking about his trumped up charges against an American-born judge of Mexican descent were themselves racist. He appeared to be concerned only with making sure that his surrogates obediently join him in maligning the judge’s credibility and impugning the reputation of the media.

And that’s what makes this all the more unhinged. The Trump University case has nothing to with the presidential campaign. It doesn’t touch on any political policy or legislative agenda. It is purely a personal matter for Donald Trump. It is, therefore, wholly inappropriate for him to recruit his campaign surrogates to run interference on a civil lawsuit that only affects him personally. Particularly when he is asking them to do his dirty work in a self-serving smear campaign. And if they agree to do it they are willfully abandoning any pretense of integrity or ethics. But then again, they’ve already done that by endorsing him for president.

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

This latest psychological meltdown illustrates just how dangerous a Trump presidency would be. He is incapable of managing his own narcissistic compulsions. He is an unstable character with no concept of the boundaries between his personal obsessions and the public welfare. He has no respect for his own supporters or staff. And his ability to elevate this comparatively minor civil suit to take priority over every other consideration on his path to the presidency is a frightening indicator of a deranged mindset that has no place in the White House.

Fox News Smears Seniors And Students In Lame Attempt To Smear Bernie Sanders

Posted by on June 6, 2016 at 9:27 pm. 1 Comments :

Today on Fox News the network put in their rotation a chart illustrating the professions of donors to the Bernie Sanders campaign. The chart is dominated by a long bar that is labeled “Not Working.” The implication from the chart, which was backed up by the Fox News anchors who displayed it, was that donors to the Sanders campaign are unemployed, lazy, leeches on society.

Fox News

As you may already have guessed, Fox’s implied shiftlessness of Sanders’ donors is a deliberate lie. The data came from the Los Angeles Times, and while it is true that about 28% of Sanders’ donors do not have jobs, what Fox fails to disclose is that it is a group comprised mainly of retirees (13.5%), students (6.5%), and stay-at-home spouses (14.5%). So what does Fox have against America’s seniors, its youth seeking an education, and its families? If Fox were to report honestly they would have remarked on the large percentage of such honorable people who flock to the Sanders campaign.

Of course, nobody expects Fox to report honestly. And this is just the latest example of their purposeful deceit. No wonder surveys of Fox News viewers consistently show them as being the least informed, and the most misinformed, news consumers in the country. And no wonder they are supporting Donald Trump for president – perhaps the stupidest, most dishonest candidate in the nation’s history.

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

John Oliver Shatters Oprah’s TV Freebie Record And Helps Free Thousands From Debt Vultures

Posted by on June 6, 2016 at 3:23 pm. NO Comments :

Once again, America’s fake news programs are proving to be more beneficial to the nation than their allegedly “real” counterparts. This weekend John Oliver delivered another of his unique, long-form routines that addressed a national travesty that burdens medical patients and their families: The predatory collectors from debt buying operations.

John Oliver

Oliver used facts and humor to describe the rapacious practices of a growing business sector that preys on the most vulnerable members of society. The debt buying industry is known for employing brutal, and often unlawful, methods of collecting money through the use of threats, intimidation, and legal harassment. He then announced his initiative in response to the problem:

“It is pretty clear by now that debt buying is a grimy business and badly needs more oversight. Because, as it stands, any idiot can get into it. And I can prove that because I’m an idiot and we started a debt buying company. And it was disturbingly easy.” […however…] “Instead of collecting the money, why not forgive it? Because, on the one hand, it’s obviously the right thing to do, but much more importantly, we’d be staging the largest one-time giveaway in television show history.”

Oliver and his team actually launched a debt buying company called Central Asset Recovery Professionals (CARP). It wasn’t long before they were given the opportunity to buy nearly $15 million of medical debt classified as “out-of-statute,” which is debt that is so old that the debtor can no longer be sued for it. Oliver/CARP paid a mere $60,000 (about half a cent on the dollar) for a portfolio of some 9,000 people with outstanding medical bills.

Next, Oliver sent the receivables to a non-profit organization that specializes in forgiving medical debt with no tax consequences for the debtor. Oliver noted that the largest previous TV giveaway was likely the infamous episode of Oprah Winfrey where she gave everyone in her studio audience a car. This giveaway is nearly twice the value of Oprah’s generosity.

Oliver reminded his audience that his historical gesture would only help the 9,000 people whose debt his company had bought, and that legal reforms and oversight were still needed to protect all consumers from predatory collectors. And with that, Oliver executed his debt forgiveness giveaway with a celebratory cry that “It’s done. I am the new queen of daytime talk.”

All kidding aside, thousands of people will benefit from Oliver’s little comedy show. But as he said, the work isn’t done to fix this horribly broken system. In the meantime, there are other organizations who have been working to achieve the same goals. The one that Oliver used to retire the debt of those on the list he bought is RIP Medical Debt. Another group that does the same thing is Rolling Jubilee, which was created during, and by members of, Occupy Wall Street. These groups have abolished tens of millions of dollars of student and medical debts and deserve our support.

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