Month: September 2016

Hillary Clinton Is Wrong About Trump’s Deplorables – It’s Way More Than Half

Posted by on September 10, 2016 at 11:57 am. 3 Comments :

The buzz on the InterTubes this morning is over some comments that Hillary Clinton made at a fundraiser yesterday. While an argument can be made that the remarks were politically risky, it cannot be disputed that they were accurate – even understated. Here is what she said (video below):

Donald Trump

“To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks are irredeemable, but they are un-American.”

Indeed. The riff raff at Trump rallies have repeatedly demonstrated their inclinations toward violence and open hatred of anyone not like them. Trump’s supporters include most of America’s most reviled racist organizations. White supremacists like David Duke have have endorsed him and assert that his beliefs are their beliefs. And often Trump fails to repudiate the cretins who are among his most fervent fans.

A poll by Public Policy Polling affirms what Clinton said about Trump’s followers and Republicans in general:

“66% of Trump’s supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim to just 12% that grant he’s a Christian. 61% think Obama was not born in the United States to only 21% who accept that he was.”

“Trump’s beliefs represent the consensus among the GOP electorate. 51% overall want to eliminate birthright citizenship. 54% think President Obama is a Muslim. And only 29% grant that President Obama was born in the United States.”

For further proof, listen to what MSNBC’s Katy Tur said yesterday about her encounters with the StormTrumpers as she covers his campaign:

“When you ask them about President Obama, not just a handful, not just a few, many of them … They often say they believe he was born in Kenya. They often say they believe he’s a Muslim. Some of them go on to say that they believe he’s an undercover operative, a Manchurian candidate, if you will, that has the interests of a foreign power rather than the interests of the American public. That being said, Donald Trump has not backed away from this.”

The response from Trump and his media lackeys is typically lame. Trump tweeted that “Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters.” That’s coming from a candidate who has made his reputation on childish insults. What’s more, he has also insulted his supporters. Reacting to his low poll numbers before the Iowa caucuses Trump said “How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” Ironically, that’s actually the same question Clinton is asking about just Trump’s bigot brigade.

Many of Trump’s defenders are also trying to connect Clinton’s comments with Mitt Romney’s famous 47% fiasco. However, the two are not comparable. Clinton is only referring to the faction in Trump’s camp who are unarguably despicable. Romney was talking about the nation as a whole. The proof of that is in what Clinton said immediately following the “deplorables” business, but that isn’t getting played in the media:

“That other basket of people are people who feel that government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures. They are just desperate for change. Doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. That they won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people who we have to understand and empathize with as well.”

Clinton has a solid case to make against Trump’s repulsive campaign rhetoric and the dimwits that buy into it. She may take some heat for expressing it the way she did, but the only thing she got wrong from a factual standpoint is that she underestimated the size of Trump’s deplorable basket.

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

UPDATE: Clinton issued a statement of regret that also affirmed the parts she got right:

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong. But let’s be clear, what’s really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values. It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American. So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.’”

Trump Goes On Russian TV – Takes Putin’s Side Against America (VIDEO)

Posted by on September 9, 2016 at 11:30 am. 5 Comments :

At Wednesday’s Commander-in-Chief forum on NBC, Donald Trump once again expressed his admiration Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He told anchor Matt Lauer that “He’s been a leader far more than our president has been a leader.” Trump’s view seems to be rooted in his innate narcissism. He also told Lauer that “If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him.”

Trump/Putin

True to form, Trump appeared on RT (the state-owned Russian Television network) praising his pal Vladimir Putin. He was interviewed by Larry King on RT’s PolitiKing. Among the subjects discussed were Trump’s contempt for the American media that he said was “unbelievably dishonest.” As opposed to Russian media? Consequently, he goes on Russian TV to bad mouth the President and his opponent Hillary Clinton.

The most striking part of the interview was the segment where King asked Trump about the charges that the Russians were responsible for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and other attempts to disrupt U.S. elections. Here is how Trump responded:

King: Putin recently said that the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails was a public service. Do you agree?

Trump: I don’t have any opinion on it. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know who hacked. I’m not sure who, I mean, you tell me. Who hacked? Who did the hacking? But I have absolutely no opinion on that. I don’t know. I haven’t heard that statement.

First of all, Trump is flat-out lying about not having heard about this. He previously addressed the subject at his rallies and press conferences. In one instance he acknowledged reports of Russian involvement and then literally asked them to do more of it. He promised that they would be rewarded if they hacked into Clinton’s emails. What’s more, Trump himself has been implicated in Russia’s hacking operations.

More to the point, Trump’s insistence that he has no opinion about a foreign adversary illegally breaching the security of American political organizations is astonishing. He repeatedly expressed his skepticism about who did the hacking. Even though U.S. intelligence has concluded that it was most likely the Russians. That is giving cover to Putin and his KGB hacking squad. And King didn’t ask him who hacked. He asked if he agreed with Putin that the hacking was a public service. So Trump has no opinion about Russians stealing private communications from Americans and publishing them.

But that wasn’t all. The interview continued with Trump essentially forgiving the Russians for trying to interfere with American elections:

King: U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies reportedly are investigating whether Russia launched a covert operation to disrupt the 2016 election. What do you make of that?

Trump: I don’t know. I mean I’ve been reading about it. I think it’s probably unlikely. I think maybe, maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows? But I think it’s probably unlikely. But you know, who knows? I hope that if they are doing something, I hope that somebody’s going to be able to find out so they can end it. Because that would not be appropriate at all.

Again, Trump is pleading ignorance (which, for him, is a believable excuse). But his effort to absolve Putin & Company is further evidence of his affinity for the Russians. He doesn’t explain how he arrived at the conclusion that “it’s probably unlikely.” However, to do so he is taking the side of the Russians against American intelligence agencies. Even worse, he attempts to shift the blame to Democrats without any foundation whatsoever. Someone should ask Trump why Democrats would hack themselves.

Subsequent to Trump’s RT interview, his spokesman sought to gloss over his comments telling CNN that he thought he was doing a podcast for Larry King and that “Mr. Trump was never told it would be shared anywhere else.” So what? While making these unpatriotic comments on RT is rich with irony, they would be just as abhorrent on King’s podcast. And how could Trump and his handlers not know where this interview would be aired? That’s just another indication of his incompetence and unfitness for the presidency. [UPDATE: Contradicting the Trump camp, the producers of Larry King’s program released a statement saying that “Mr. Trump was always booked on ‘PoliticKING with Larry King'”]

On a tangential matter, the interview ended abruptly when King brought up the subject of immigration:

King: Let’s get something clear, cause I’ve known you a long time. On this immigration, what are your feelings about Mexican immigrants. What are your gut – what do feel about this?
Trump: [Silence]
King: Don are you there? … I don’t know what happened there. We did not lose the connection.

Curious. Let’s just leave that to stand on its own. Although the Democrats probably had something to do with it.

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

[Note: Trump on hacking starts about 8:50]

Obama Scorches Trump And His ‘Outright Wacky Ideas’ (VIDEO)

Posted by on September 8, 2016 at 7:10 pm. 1 Comments :

It isn’t often that politicians express personal opinions about their ideological foes. The demands of diplomacy overrule the fleeting satisfaction of rubbing some jerk’s face in it. However, there are circumstances that simply won’t allow the observance of customary protocol.

Barack Obama

President Obama encountered one of those circumstance yesterday when he was asked at a press conference about comments made by Donald Trump. The reporter cited Trump’s opinion that “Vladimir Putin has been more of a leader than you,” and that “you have reduced American generals to rubble.” In those two snippets of ignorance Trump managed to insult both America and its military. The reporter then asked Obama if he wanted to “defend his legacy.” The President’s first response was hearty laughter. Then he said this:

“As far as Mr. Trump, I think I’ve already offered my opinion. I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States. And every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed. The most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.”

There’s something uplifting about seeing your President righteously smack down a raging goofball like Trump. His ideas, while indisputably wacky, are actually much more problematic than that. They are also dangerous. It’s startling that anyone can take him seriously. Clearly our President doesn’t – at least so far as responding to his insipid blathering.

In the same forum where Trump confessed his affection for Russia’s dictator and his distaste for our generals, Trump provided details of his wackiness. For instance, he advocated taking Iraq’s oil. That would not only violate international law, it would incite a new generation of terrorists. He also affirmed his view that it should be expected that women in the military will be assaulted. And I can’t imagine that the intelligence agents who briefed him were thrilled to see him discussing it on television.

Obama further mocked Trump by noting that when talking about critical matters of national security “You actually have to know what you’re talking about.” And then he said:

“There is this process that seems to take place over the course of the election season where somehow behavior that in normal times we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalized.”

That’s actually not Trump’s fault. That’s something the media needs to address. It’s a journalistic travesty that Trump is treated as if his bullcrap is on par with analyses by seasoned experts with decades of experience. The press is too timid to tell the public when Trump is flagrantly lying. Likewise, they seldom expose his rants as merely word jumbles that have no meaning. And more often than not, Trump is either lying or babbling. Ethical journalists have a responsibility to point that out.

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

Trump And Fox News Buy Into Batsh*t Crazy Clinton Conspiracy Theories – Again

Posted by on September 8, 2016 at 3:50 pm. 1 Comments :

Here’s more evidence that the right is falling into an abyss of desperation. Donald Trump is clinging feverishly to national polls showing him as competitive. Never mind that they have no bearing on who wins presidential elections. It’s the states that deliver electoral votes and the presidency. On that scale Hillary Clinton is way ahead. The Trump camp knows this, though they will spend the next few weeks frantically trying to divert attention from it.

The latest diversions qualify as certifiably insane. Let’s begin with a charge that emanated from the bowels of Alex Jones’ InfoWars. Jones, you will recall, is a Birther, a 9/11 Truther, and believes that the children murdered at Sandy Hook were all actors. This morning he posted a story alleging that Clinton wore an “earbud” during the Commander-in-Chief Forum last night. She was supposedly being coached with answers from unseen aides off stage. The story was picked up and propelled by the Drudge Report and even Fox News who said that:

“[T]he buzz Thursday morning was more about a report claiming Clinton relied on a ‘micro’ earbud as she fielded questions about national security — a claim her campaign vigorously denied.”

Donald Trump, Jr. tweeted “We cant let Hillary get away with wearing an ear piece during tonights Veteran Forum#HillarysEarPiece#NBCNewsForum” And Fox’s Sean Hannity joined in with a post on the subject as well.

There is just one problem with this crackpottery. The video of the event contains numerous shots of both of Clinton’s ears that plainly have nothing in them. The entire fantasy was born from a single video still that had a random reflection. That was sufficient to set the wingnuts to drooling over the discovery of Clinton’s evil plot. But, see? No earbud!

Hillary Clinton

If that wasn’t enough, Fox News sought to invent another fantastical scandal involving Clinton. This one was from the warped imagination of Stuart Varney, anchor of Varney & Company on the Fox Business Network. He introduced a segment that anxiously wondered “Who is Clinton’s ‘mystery man?’” The report featured video of a well-dressed gentleman accompanying Clinton on the campaign trail. Varney asserted that social media was blowing up over who he might be. He expressed skepticism that he might simply be one of Clinton’s Secret Service agents:

“If he’s actually a member of the Secret Service detail guarding Hillary Clinton, why is he touching her, because he did, he came up on the stage the other night and put his arm around her, and then said ‘Keep talking.’ Surely that is not what the secret service is supposed to do is it?”

Varney’s guest was former Secret Service agent and frequent Fox contributor, Dan Bongino. He offered a theory from way out in right field suggesting that the “mystery man” was “responding to the stage when [Clinton] is in what may have been some kind of a medical crisis.” Varney joined in the wild speculation asking “Is he supporting her during a medical crisis?”

Judging from the video that Varney showed, the man was undoubtedly with Clinton’s Secret Service detail. And he and other agents sprung into action when something occurred in the audience. Clinton, the agent, and others on stage were all looking in the same direction into the crowd. No one appeared to be concerned with Clinton’s health by any stretch of the imagination. See for yourself:

By the end of the segment both Varney and Bongino were dismissing the whole thing as a conspiracy theory that they had just debunked. Which was nice of them after having also just invented it and broadcast it to an audience thirsty for scandal. Both surely knew there was nothing to this before they began, but they considered it too juicy not to plant in the minds of gullible Fox viewers.

Expect to see more of these nutcase studies in Clinton intrigue before the election is over. Fox and Trump will surely uncover evidence of Clinton’s involvement in the Kennedy assassination. Not to mention the Hindenburg crash and fake moon landing. This is all they have left since they nominated a narcissistic ignoramus who can’t go twenty minutes without embarrassing himself and his party.

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

Donald Trump On The Record: We Will Be One People Under One God

Posted by on September 8, 2016 at 12:19 pm. 7 Comments :

On Tuesday, Donald Trump delivered another of his infamous harangues. He was shooting for a theme of unity, but made a statement that is pointedly un-American and discriminatory.

“We will be one people, under one God, saluting one flag.”

Donald Trump

One God? And which God would that be? Trump is demonstrating his innate bigotry with the suggestion that there is a single faith in America that takes precedence over others and unites the whole nation. There may be some Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and a vast array of Christian sects that disagree.

Once again he proves that he doesn’t understand America, its Constitution, or the principles for which it stands. Nor does he understand the religion he pretends to practice.

RIGGING THE DEBATES: Media Admit They Are ‘Setting A Low Bar’ For Dumbass Donald Trump

Posted by on September 7, 2016 at 3:17 pm. 2 Comments :

As the campaign season enters its final stretch the most impactful remaining scheduled events are the candidate debates. The first one is less than three weeks away (September 26). This will be the first time that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will confront each other face to face.

Donald Trump

One thing the media has no problem with is endless speculation about the outcomes of future events. Consequently, there is no shortage of analysis of how they expect the candidates to perform. The expectations game in the media, however, is always being prodded by the candidates in order to shape the public perception after the fact. By lowering expectations the candidate can claim victory by simply not blurting out obscenities or drooling.

To that end, Donald Trump is getting a significant boost from the media who are already staking their position on the inferiority of Trump. Ordinarily that would appear to be a realistic assessment. Trump is obviously ill-equipped to debate Hillary Clinton. He is woefully ignorant of domestic policy and world affairs. Match that with his inability to articulate a coherent solution to any problem. The result is a candidate who represents a truly dangerous prospect for national leadership. On the other hand Clinton has a profound depth of knowledge related to the specific prerequisites for governing.

However, in the debate expectations game Trump has the advantage because no one thinks he can compete effectively with Clinton. Unless, that is, you believe that childish insults and deliberate lies are valid methods of scoring points. And the media is taking the lead in propagating Trump’s shortcomings. Some prominent members of the allegedly liberal press are admitting that they have lowered the bar for Trump’s performance. Here are examples from CNN, the New York Times, and the Associated Press:

Dana Bash, CNN: I think the stakes are much higher in this debate and all the debates for Hillary Clinton because the expectations are higher for her because she’s a seasoned politician. She’s a seasoned debater. You know, yes we saw Donald Trump in the primaries debate for the first time, but he is a first-time politician. So um, for lots of reasons. Maybe it’s not fair, but that’s the way it is. The onus is on her.

Maggie Haberman, New York Times: What hurts Hillary Clinton is the bar has been lowered for Trump repeatedly because he keeps getting graded on a curve as her supporters would say and which I think you’ve seen. The question is does he merely pass and have that recorded as, yes, he did very well.

Julie Pace, Associated Press: By virtue of her long political resume, Hillary Clinton will enter her highly anticipated fall debates with Donald Trump facing the same kind of heightened expectations that often saddle an incumbent president. Trump, as the political newcomer, will be more of a wild card with a lower bar to clear.

So poor Donald Trump is such a buffoon that needs to be given “special” consideration. The golf resort baron has a debate handicap that’s higher than his IQ (which isn’t saying much). Never mind that he will tell you he has a tremendous brain and knows more than anybody about anything. He boasted that he won all twelve of the GOP primary debates. And he only participated in eleven of them. His opponents included several people highly regarded for their debating skills. The sharp tongued Chris Christie, senate whiz kid Marco Rubio, and Princeton’s North Amer­i­can Debat­ing Cham­pi­on of 1992, Ted Cruz.

Still, the media is portraying Trump as a child with a learning disability being forced to compete with Albert Einstein. It’s a flagrantly dishonest assessment that tilts the balance in his favor. It also trivializes the presidency by pretending that Trump’s intellectual inadequacy isn’t an obstacle to serving. And they are only doing it to make more of a horse race out of the election. When the race is tighter people are more engaged, which translates into more viewers and higher ratings. So if one candidate needs a (bone)head start, they’ll give it to him.

Donald Trump has been whining about the debates from the start of his campaign. He complained about the moderators, the length of time, and the participants. After winning the GOP nomination he complained that the general election debate dates were unacceptable and that he wouldn’t participate unless he approved of the moderators. His animosity toward the press is legendary. He blacklisted many news organizations (i.e. Washington Post, Univision, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and more), prohibiting them from covering his events. Although he just announced that he would end his practice of blacklisting saying “I figure they can’t treat me any worse!”

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

Americans are going to make an important decision in November. Their only criteria should be whether the candidate is qualified to do the job and represents their interests. Being an idiot does not grant you special privileges or a leg up to the White House. If only one candidate can engage in a substantive discussion, then she deserves to win.

Donald Trump Caught Outright Lying About ‘Donation’ To Florida Attorney General

Posted by on September 6, 2016 at 6:05 pm. 3 Comments :

For several weeks much of the media has been panting breathlessly over minuscule disclosures related to the Clinton Foundation. Never mind that there has not been any finding that Hillary Clinton violated any law or granted any special favors. The so-called “liberal” media has latched onto the story with a fierce determination to find wrongdoing. Meanwhile, another story has been getting short shrift despite actual findings of guilt.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump made a $25,000 donation to a political group called “And Justice For All.” The group was supporting the reelection of Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of Florida. At the time Bondi was investigating whether to join a multi-state lawsuit against Trump University for fraud. Within days of receiving the check, Bondi opted out of the lawsuit. But the stench of corruption doesn’t stop there.

The funds for the donation were drawn from the Trump Foundation, a personal account intended for donations to non-profit charities. It was illegal for such funds to be given to a political campaign. When the IRS questioned Trump’s people about it, they said that the funds went to a charity in Kansas with a similar name. That’s the first lie.

Trump may have thought the matter was put to rest after he paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS. He also reimbursed his Foundation from his private account. Additionally, according to the statute in Florida, Bondi would have to return the funds to the donor. However, there is no record that that was ever done.

Now Trump has responded to questions about the donation. In his typically incoherent rambling he dismissed the entire affair as a mistake:

“I never spoke to her, first of all; she’s a fine person beyond reproach. I never even spoke to her about it at all. She’s a fine person. Never spoken to her about it. Never. Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court. Many turned that down. I never spoke to her.”

That’s the second lie. Do you get the impression that he wants to convey that he never spoke to her? You’re not alone. The problem is that Bondi disagrees. According to the Associated Press:

“Florida’s attorney general personally solicited a political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.”

Furthermore, Bondi was interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Fox Business today and confirmed that she solicited the donation from Trump. With the disclosure that Bondi and Trump did actually talk about the donation, and the fact that the Florida investigation was nixed shortly thereafter, it’s hard not to view this as a bribe. What’s more, Trump has bragged about doing this often in his business affairs:

“When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me,”

This is standard operating procedure for Trump. And it isn’t even the only time he did it with regard to the Trump University fraud. He also appealed to the Texas AG to drop the Trump U. case being considered in that state. After the Texas case was dropped, Trump cut a check to the gubernatorial campaign of then attorney general, now Texas Governor, Greg Abbott.

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

With such clear cut evidence of a crime, you might think the media would give this more than a sideways glance. On Fox News the Bondi story has not been covered at all. And yet, as Media Matters reported, Fox “spent Tuesday obsessing over Hillary Clinton coughing during a rally.” Because that’s what passes for news at Fox. And they certainly wouldn’t want to tell the truth about Trump after investing the last couple of years in his candidacy.

Glenn Beck’s Predictions Of The World Ending Are Coming True – For Him

Posted by on September 6, 2016 at 1:24 pm. 4 Comments :

When Glenn Beck was given the boot by Fox News in 2011, he promised his disciples that “I will find another way to get my message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful!” Thereupon, he established a website and began charging his fans to watch videos they used to see for free. A subscription bought you the same fanciful conspiracy theories and warnings of imminent doom he had spun on Fox. The subscription fee was later later dropped, suggesting a lack of demand.

Glenn Beck

Eventually, Beck expanded his media empire to include a “news” site, a live event division, and a film production company. He had big dreams that featured himself as a combination Walt Disney/Messiah. There was even a Utopian city planned that he christened Independence, USA. There the rich and poor would live together in harmony while shopping, farming, and riding holy-roller coasters to Valhalla.

Very little of this fantasy ever materialized. And today Beck announced with “mixed emotions” that the film company he launched, “American Dream Labs” would no longer be a part of his dwindling empire. Officially, he is splitting it off so it can “spread its wings.” But since it has never produced anything since its inception, it may not be fit for flying.

The demise of American Dream Labs is not the first sign of trouble for Beck. This year has seen his staff reduced significantly. TVNewser reported that Beck’s organization is laying off between 35 and 45 people from his operations in New York, Los Angeles, Ohio. and Washington, D.C. This latest wielding of the ax came only a few days after the resignation of the CEO of Beck’s TheBlaze website. And that preceded a torrent of departures and other corporate melodrama, including cross-filed lawsuits.

Furthermore, News Corpse reported way back in 2013 that Beck was struggling to keep his media company afloat. He submitted a filing to the SEC seeking $40 million dollars in funding for TheBlaze. This was after he declared that he would never accept outside sources of funding because “I do not want to have to answer to anyone else.” Apparently looming bankruptcy softened his commitment to that principle. To date Beck has received only $6.4 million of the $40 million he sought.

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

Yes, it’s been a bad year for Beck. He has lost cable distribution of his weblog. Advertisers flee him like the plague. His candidate for president, Ted Cruz, went down in flames. Beck did not take that well. In desperation he warned that “If we drop it at this moment, we lose. And let me tell you something, you lose freedom for all mankind. I’m convinced of it.” So when you think about it, maybe having to bury his film company isn’t all that bad. After all, what would he have produced if freedom for all mankind is already gone anyway?

Fox News Helped A Criminal Hacker Spread Lies About Clinton, FBI Report Reveals

Posted by on September 5, 2016 at 7:22 pm. 2 Comments :

The lengths to which Fox News will go to smear Democrats are still being tested. To date they have shown no qualms about making defamatory inferences, character assassination, and outright lying. But one of the most loathsome tactics they’ve employed is their readiness to embrace unsavory characters as “credible” sources. They often cite known conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck for news analysis. And Fox News reporters are always more likely to believe Vladimir Putin or Ayatollah Khamenei or anyone rather than Hillary Clinton.

Fox News

A superb example of this was just revealed with new findings by the FBI following their investigation into Clinton’s email server. Part of the controversy involved a Romanian hacker who claimed to have accessed Clinton’s server. Marcel Lazar, aka Guccifer, was interviewed in jail by Fox’s Catherine Herridge. Her report stated that he had “easily – and repeatedly – breached” Clinton’s server’s security. He told Herridge that “For me, it was easy … easy for me, for everybody,” Herridge also said that Guccifer had “provided extensive details about how he did it and what he found.”

Herridge also reported the response from Clinton’s campaign:

“There is absolutely no basis to believe the claims made by this criminal from his prison cell. In addition to the fact he offers no proof to support his claims, his descriptions of Secretary Clinton’s server are inaccurate. It is unfathomable that he would have gained access to her emails and not leaked them the way he did to his other victims.”

So given the wild assertions of a jailed Romanian hacker, whose claims Fox admitted they “could not independently confirm,” and the official statement from Clinton’s spokesperson, who do you think Fox News believed?

Consistent with the Fox’s disregard for honesty and ethics, the network latched onto Lazar and his transparent deceit. Fox doesn’t care whether or not he’s telling the truth so long as it’s damaging to Clinton. And why bother giving consideration to an American who has served the public for decades when you have the word of a foreign criminal who might say anything to get a reduced sentence? However, it wasn’t long before the FBI came out with its conclusions following their investigation:

“On May 26,2016 the FBI interviewed Lazar who admitted he lied to FOX News about hacking the Clinton server. FBI forensic analysis of the Clinton server during the timeframe Lazar claimed to have compromised the server did not identify evidence that Lazar hacked the server.”

That’s a pretty definitive refutation of Fox’s star witness. This is someone that formed the basis for an extended smear campaign of Clinton that traversed across the network’s schedule. The hosts of Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt speculated that the hacking probably involved many others and would lead to a Clinton indictment. On Fox’s The Five, Eric Bolling repeated Lazar’s claims, as did his co-host, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who also linked it incoherently to Benghazi.

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

What Fox News did here was inexcusable and irresponsible. They accepted Lazar’s claims as fact and used them as a political weapon. In none of these incidents has Fox News issued a retraction or an apology. They simply make outrageous and untrue allegations and then let them fester, even after they’ve been proven false. It’s standard operating procedure at Fox News and it’s more proof that whatever they do, it isn’t journalism.

DAFUQ? Giuliani Blames Clinton For Trump’s Birther Bullsh*t (VIDEO)

Posted by on September 4, 2016 at 4:00 pm. 15 Comments :

There is a toxic tendency among conservatives to persistently believe the most ridiculous lies about Hillary Clinton. Even after they’ve been thoroughly debunked, the right clings to them like ideological life preservers. This makes it hard for any of these crackpot notions to mercifully die.

Giuliani

One of the stickiest Hillary mythologies is the charge that she created the Birther movement. The fact that there are still people who believe that President Obama is a native Kenyan is puzzling and sad. But even worse are the loons who insist that Clinton started it all.

Donald Trump, of course, anointed himself as the Chief Birther years ago. He claimed to have sent an investigative team to Hawaii to get to the bottom of it. Later, he declared that the world “will be amazed” at what they found. Unfortunately, Trump’s “investigators” must have been swallowed up by a lava flow because they have never been heard from again. In the interim, Trump has refused to even talk about it. Amazing.

Additionally, Trump is also a vocal proponent of the theory that Clinton birthed Birtherism. Before he dropped it from his repertoire it was a regular part of his anti-Clinton spiel. For example, see this tweet from last September:

No it wasn’t, and no she wasn’t. For the record. neither Hillary Clinton, nor her campaign, had any part of the Birther business. In fact, she explicitly called it “ludicrous.” Every fact-checking organization refuted the allegation. PolitiFact wrote a detailed response declaring it “False” and concluding that:

“There is no record that Clinton herself or anyone within her campaign ever advanced the charge that Obama was not born in the United States.”

To its shame, the media has allowed Trump to evade questions on his Birther fetish. They have inexplicably honored his pronouncement that he doesn’t talk about it anymore. Just because he wants to put it aside doesn’t mean that responsible journalists have to comply. And this morning CNN’s Jake Tapper proved why it is still important to raise the issue. Tapper brought it up with respect to Trump’s recent efforts to pander to minority voters. He asked Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani to comment:

Jake Tapper: I have to say, in interviews many African-Americans say they are still troubled by Mr. Trump having suggested over and over, falsely, that the first African-American president was born in Africa and, thus, ineligible to be president.

Giuliani began to respond by asserting that “the first one that made that claim was Hillary Clinton.” Tapper interrupted to say that it wasn’t Clinton herself, but people around her. But even that isn’t correct. It was a group of fringe supporters who were unaffiliated with her campaign. Giuliani’s exchange with Tapper continued:

Tapper: It was resolved in 2011 when he released his birth certificate. Donald Trump talking about this as recently as February of last year at CPAC saying that he thinks the birth certificate is false. Should he just apologize for this to let – if he really wants to reach out to minority voters?

Rudy Giuliani: You know, if everybody apologized for all the things they said in politics, all we would be doing on television shows is apologizing. Maybe a lot of the Democrats should apologize for calling Donald Trump a racist and calling him all kinds of terrible names and? – it gets a little silly.

First of all, if all he would be doing on TV is apologizing for things he said, he is saying way too much bullcrap. Which, of course, in his case is true. More to the point, Giuliani’s suggestion that Democrats apologize for telling the truth about Trump is totally absurd. And lying about Obama’s citizenship is overtly racist and blaming Clinton for it just makes it worse. His refusal to apologize is evidence that he and Trump aren’t sorry about expressing their bigotry.

The rush to hang Birtherism on Clinton is not a new phenomenon. Saturday on CNN Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes also falsely claimed that Clinton was the source of Birtherism. Much of last year Fox News pushed this nonsense. Many of their top personalities joined in, including Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Steve Doocy.

By continuing to spread these lies, Giuliani, Trump, Fox News, and all of their cohorts, are demonstrating an open aversion to the truth. They are embracing racism. In addition, they are effectively admitting that they haven’t got a single factual criticism to make about Clinton. Otherwise, why would they have to keep pounding away on one that they surely know is false? And if it’s their intention to keep Birtherism alive, then Trump should be forced to face questions about it whether he wants to or not.

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