Day: 1/21/2018

Fox News Posts Trump-Fluffing Propaganda Video: This Is What State-Run TV Looks Like

Posted by on January 21, 2018 at 2:46 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump has managed to survive one year as the alleged President of the United States. It’s actually quite an accomplishment considering that he has produced almost nothing but decline, catastrophe, hatred, and embarrassment. Any other political figure would have crumbled under the weight of such failure, but that’s only because other leaders have had at least some measure of dignity and/or shame.

Donald Trump Fox News

On this solemn anniversary Trump is mired in a government shutdown of his own making. It was through intentional neglect of duty and purposeful self-interest that Trump has found himself in this dilemma. Simultaneously, he’s staring down special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his collusion with Russia, financial corruption, and obstruction of justice. And he repeatedly displays a sort of racist Tourette’s Syndrome, blurting out bigoted slurs and insults uncontrollably.

In the midst of this presidential apocalypse, Fox News is coming to Trump’s rescue with a slickly produced propaganda video that aims to portray everything as hunky dory. In the view of Fox News there is no crisis in Washington, no controversy over healthcare or immigration, and the world is a paradise of peace and harmony. It’s the happy-face flip-side of the racist, dystopian campaign ad Trump put out yesterday. Just feast your eyes on this and take comfort that your country is in tiny, but good hands:

The video covers a lot of territory. But most of it is in Trumpian Fantasyland. It boasts about Trump’s recent tax reforms that mainly benefit corporations and the rich. It includes a sound bite from Trump saying that his plan was “the biggest tax cut and tax reform in the history of our country.” It wasn’t. Even President Obama had larger cuts, twice.

The video also praises the Trump administration’s assault on regulations that protect the American people from predatory financial institutions, dangerous workplaces, and toxic water, air, and food. Somehow these attacks on average Americans are viewed as positive by Fox News. The network also regards the “chip[ping] away at ObamaCare” as another Trump “success.” And the same goes for Trump’s record on judicial appointments. The video brags that “When Trump took office he inherited more than 100 federal judicial vacancies.” However, that was due to the unprecedented obstruction of Mitch McConnell in the GOP controlled Senate, who denied Obama his Constitutional right to nominate justices and judges. Even so, Trump only had twenty-three judicial confirmations.

Finally, the Fox News love-fest credited Trump with defeating ISIS. Never mind that he did absolutely nothing to alter the military operations that were put in place by the Pentagon during Obama’s administration. ISIS had been losing ground for months prior to Trump’s inauguration. And the Iraqi army was mainly responsible for recapturing territory from the terrorists, with training and air support from the U.S.

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

Like any well crafted commercial, this video ended by repeating Trump’s branding, “Make America great again.” Tacking that slogan onto the end was exactly what any marketing executive would have done if the video were for Diet Coke or Toyota. There is only one way to describe this video: Pure propaganda. When a media enterprise produces such cringeworthy flattery on behalf of a political figure they are supposedly covering, it can’t be taken seriously as journalism. It’s proof that the network is a totally owned and operated subsidiary of the White House that shamelessly panders to our Narcissist-in-Chief. And in the process Fox News is deliberately misinforming the public and advancing the ignorance and division that is the hallmark of the Era of Trump.

This Racist Trump Ad Calls Democrats ‘Complicit’ in Murders Committed By Illegal Immigrants

Posted by on January 21, 2018 at 8:06 am. 5 Comments :

After only one uneventful year in office (if you don’t count disastrous and embarrassing events) Donald Trump is already focusing on 2020. It’s the earliest launch of a reelection campaign that anyone can recall. For the most part he’s using the guise of campaign as a slush fund to hold rallies that feed his insatiable ego. He craves the adoration of his glassy-eyed disciples, particularly considering his historically low approval ratings. And there is a fair chance he won’t finish his first term if special counsel Robert Mueller comes through.

Donald Trump

Trump just released a campaign ad (posted below) that mirrors his repulsive and bigoted personality perfectly. It begins with video of an alleged murderer spewing vulgarities. That may also be a first for an American political advertisement. But it gets worse. The ominous tone of an anxious narrator asserts that “President Trump is right” in his fetish to build a wall along the southern border that will solve nothing and won’t be paid for by Mexico. The ad is rife with thinly veiled insinuations that all immigrants are scary brown foreigners with a lust for American blood. Trump offers himself up as the sole savior of our vulnerable families. And then he drops this reprehensible rhetorical bullshit:

“Democrats who stand in our way will be complicit in every murder committed by illegal immigrants.”

Oh really? Trump is actually trying to lay the blame for random and heinous criminal activity on his political opponents. He’s associating differences of opinion with complicity to murder. It’s an absurd and unethical political attack that should be repudiated by his Republican peers. The logic of it is so weak that it, if anything, it blows up in his face. It’s more consistent with his own support for white nationalists and neo-Nazis who commit far more crimes of violence than any immigrants. In fact, even undocumented immigrants commit fewer crimes than native born citizens.

The racism is not the least bit disguised. The entire premise of the ad is that monsters from south of the border are plotting to invade our country, break into our homes, and commit unspeakable atrocities. The words “Stop Illegal Immigration” appear on screen over video of two Latino men whose faces have been eerily blurred. Never mind that the men in the picture are not engaging in any crime or acting in any way threatening. Just their ethnicity is enough to signal danger in the minds of Trump and his Deplorables.

There is also a hint of totalitarianism in the ad’s language that demands obedience on the part of Democrats, warning them not to “stand in our way.” It’s reminiscent of the threats leveled at German citizens who opposed Hitler’s enforcers as he rose to power. And the consequences of standing in Trump’s way are charges of murder, which have a penalty of death. The next step for the StormTrumpers would be to raid the homes of his perceived enemies, load them into freight cars, and deliver them to concentration camps. Don’t think it can’t happen here. That’s what many Germans thought.

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

UPDATE: In a Sunday morning appearance on Meet the Press Trump’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, first tries to distance the administration from the racist ad by saying it’s from an outside group. But that’s a blatant lie. The ad is from Trump’s own campaign committee, which Chuck Todd pointed out and Short ignored. Moments later Short refuses to to even criticize the “tone” of the ad and insists that it’s actually helpful to Trump. So after failing to disown it, he embraces it. How Trumpian.