Month: April 2018

Trump-Fluffing Nut Job and Fox News Shill Says Root of Mueller Probe is ‘Penis Envy’

Posted by on April 12, 2018 at 12:43 pm. 8 Comments :

It had to come to this. The wingnut miscreants who suck up to Donald Trump have descended to the basest and most delusional fantasies their diseased imaginations can manufacture. It’s not enough anymore to merely smear American patriots as corrupt and dishonest. No, they are now envisioning perverse scenarios that are, in all likelihood, projections of their own psychotic defects.

Wayne Allyn Root Fox News

Wayne Allyn Root is a radio talk show host who resides on the outer fringe of the right-wing universe. He is also a frequent guest on Fox News and a contributor to their website’s editorials. And apparently he is also a sex-obsessed pervert with ludicrous ideas about the motivations of special counsel Robert Mueller. In a completely bonkers rant on Wednesday, Root attacked Mueller in the most disgustingly personal way imaginable. The tirade was triggered by news that the recent raid on the home and offices of Michael Cohen (Trump’s attorney) collected information regarding the now infamous Access Hollywood recordings of Trump bragging about committing sexual assaults.

This is just one part of the wide-ranging investigation into Trump’s improper and unlawful activities that include collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice, and financial corruption. But in Root’s mind it now comprises the whole of the inquiry. And unable to construct any rational arguments to defend Trump or support his demented theories, Root leaped head first into a totally made up story intended to malign Mueller. Here are a couple of excerpts from Root’s dementia courtesy of Right Wing Watch:

“Robert Mueller has probably never had sex in his life,” Root said. “I know he has never had sex with a beautiful woman. Did you ever see the angry look on Robert Mueller’s face? Robert Mueller needs sex badly and he is so jealous that Donald Trump was a billionaire playboy and obviously had sex with the most beautiful women in the world.” […]

“Mueller is vicious, Mueller is disgusting, Mueller is a pervert. Can you imagine what he does at home at night? Who knows what he does, watching his computer images of Donald Trump and beautiful women. I can just guess what Mueller is doing in the dark, with the light of the screen glaring on him inside is office at 12 midnight..” […]

“It’s penis envy,” Root declared triumphantly. “Mueller’s is smaller than Trump’s.”

Root must have had assistants standing by to wipe the drool from his chin. He made a big deal about how women were drawn magnetically to Trump because he was so handsome and rich. Mueller, he said, was just a nerdy, penniless virgin. And it was that contrast that made Mueller so determined to get Trump.

It goes without saying that this is ridiculous in the extreme. It hardly deserves a response. But in the interests of correcting the record, here is the truth about Robert Mueller:

Mueller was born into a life of privilege, much the same as Trump. His father was an executive with DuPont. In school he was popular and admired. He was the captain of the soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams. He married his childhood sweetheart and remained happily married for fifty-two years (and counting). He enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam where he was the recipient of the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Purple Heart, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. And professionally he compiled a resume of achievement that included a law degree from the University of Virginia, being a U.S. Attorney, and the longest serving Director of the FBI.

Comparing that to Trump’s life of failure is way too easy. Trump inherited his wealth and did virtually nothing to increase it. To the contrary, he claimed bankruptcy half a dozen times. He never had a happy marriage (including the current one) and cheated publicly on all three of his wives. He dodged service in Vietnam with four academic deferments and a bogus claim of bone spurs. And unlike Mueller’s life of public service, Trump was in service only to his own greed, lust, and ego.

Root’s unhinged diatribe is emblematic of the Trump cult mentality so many of the President’s supporters suffer from. Sean Hannity is every bit as deranged and dishonest as Root. But it’s no wonder that these bootlickers have won Trump’s favor. Trump even thanked Root for his slobbering sycophancy on Twitter. They are clearly made for each other. And Root’s latest blathering is sure to give Trump some solace in these trying times preceding his imminent downfall. For a taste of Root’s madness, here is a video of part of Wednesday’s show – if you have the stomach for it:

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

New York Times Shatters Trump’s Denial that He Took 150G From a Ukrainian Oligarch

Posted by on April 11, 2018 at 3:36 pm. 4 Comments :

Poor Donald Trump. He continues to be a victim of of his own ignorance and acutely deficient comprehension skills. As a result he misunderstands even the simplest subjects and then lashes out in mindless tantrums that only make him look even more foolish. It’s a downward spiral of psychotic collapse that repeats itself on a nearly daily basis. And despite all the evidence to the contrary, Trump still thinks he’s a “stable genius.”

Donald Trump

On Wednesday Trump was typically miffed at the “fake” news he perceived being published by the “failing” New York Times. Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman of the Times posted a well researched article about Trump receiving $150,000 from a Ukrainian oligarch as payment for a twenty minute video address in September of 2015. The money was “donated” to Trump’s foundation which has a notably poor record of doing any charitable work. In fact, it has been found to have unlawfully funneled money to Trump via phony transactions. In one case the foundation bought a portrait of Trump that it hung at his golf resort. On another occasion foundation funds were used to pay a legal settlement that was owed by Trump personally.

Per usual, Trump expressed his outrage at the Times via Twitter:

Trump’s tweet doesn’t in any way refute the reporting by the Times. In fact, he validates it. And Trump’s failure to grasp what’s obvious was noted by the article’s authors on Twitter here and here. In the article the authors explicitly note that:

“The special counsel is investigating a payment made to President Trump’s foundation by a Ukrainian steel magnate for a talk during the campaign, according to three people briefed on the matter, as part of a broader examination of streams of foreign money to Mr. Trump and his associates in the years leading up to the election.”

And that:

“The event, his first foray into global politics during the campaign, was set up by Doug Schoen, a veteran political consultant and pollster who works with Mr. Pinchuk, according to a person familiar with how the speech was arranged. Mr. Schoen, a frequent Fox News guest, has known Mr. Trump for years and contacted him personally to set it up at the end of August 2015, according to the person.”

So Trump is correct. It was Schoen who set up the speech. But the speech wasn’t for Schoen, nor did Schoen pay for it. How could he? He’s just a Fox News shill who pretends he’s a Democrat so he can get booked on Fox and bash Democrats. It was the Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk who was Trump’s benefactor. Schoen was a go-between. Pinchuk is a steel magnate who has been accused of dumping Ukrainian steel into U.S. markets. He engaged Schoen, who knew Trump, to facilitate the appearance.

Even more suspicious is the fact that it was Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who solicited the donation. That’s the same Michael Cohen whose home and offices were just raided by the FBI. According to the Times, Schoen “had gotten to know Mr. Cohen by running into him in the green room at Fox News.” Well, as the Church Lady would say, “isn’t that convenient?”

Once again, Trump’s wild-eyed indignation has no basis in reality. He’s simply disgorging illogical outbursts that fail to advance any coherent objective, other than whining about the media. And in this case of Trump’s unhinging, as in most all of the others, the media was just doing its job responsibly, accurately, and honestly. Trump thinks that if he hollers and stamps his feet enough, everyone will agree with him. But he’s only pointing out how pathetic he is at comprehending a simple news story. SAD!

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

Trolling Trump? ‘Rule of Law’ Republicans Run Ad Defending Mueller During Fox And Friends

Posted by on April 11, 2018 at 12:52 pm. 1 Comments :

The Republican Party has demonstrated that they have little to no courage when it comes to mitigating the harm that Donald Trump causes to their party, the nation, and the world. At every turn they’ve had his back, whether it was regarding breaches of the Constitution, sexual harassment and assault, infantile tantrums on Twitter, and especially colluding with Russia to subvert democracy and obstructing justice.

Donald Trump Robert Mueller

Efforts by Congress to reign in Trump’s worst instincts have been suppressed by congressional leaders like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Bipartisan bills have been drafted to insure that Trump does not move to fire special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a vain attempt shield himself from the consequences of his illegal activities. But those bills have been bottled up and, although there are sufficient votes for them to pass, the GOP leaders won’t allow them to come to the floor. Not only that, but Americans don’t want Mueller fired 69 percent to 13 percent. And that includes a majority (55%) of Republicans. Even a Twitter poll by Fox’s Lou Dobbs opposed firing Mueller (70% to 25%).

However, there now seems to be a growing assortment of GOP politicians and pundits whose disgust with the President can no longer be contained. They have launched an initiative seeking to protect Mueller from the vengeful Wrath of Trump. The “Rule of Law Republicans“ include some of the most prominent party members, office holders and media. Their website features quotes from many of them that strongly support the work of the special counsel, including Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Ben Sasse, Rep. Trey Gowdy, Sen. John McCain, former Gov. Chris Christie, and National Review editor Rich Lowry, to name a few. In addition to the website, the group purchased ad time to run commercials like this one:

In a particularly inspired bit of programming, they bought airtime during Donald Trump’s favorite Fox News show, Fox and Friends, in the Washington, D.C. market. They know that Trump watches the show every morning, often live-tweeting what he sees. So it’s safe to say that Trump saw the ad. And since he relies more on Fox News than the combined resources of his White House staff, cabinet and intelligence agencies, they hope that this will be a way to influence his future behavior. That may be somewhat optimistic, but it’s as good a strategy as any other.

The urgency to protect Mueller escalated significantly after the U.S. Attorney’s office raided the home and offices of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. He immediately tweeted that “Attorney–client privilege is dead!” and called the probe “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!” On Wednesday morning’s regularly scheduled tweetstorm, Trump lashed out saying that:

Of course the inhabitants of the Real World know that all of the top managers of the inquiry (Mueller, Rosenstein, A.G. Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Chris Wray) are life long Republicans. What’s more, they were all appointed by Trump. So his accusation that Mueller is the “most conflicted of all” is not only delusional, it should be seen as a bright, high-flying red flag declaring his desire and intention to terminate Mueller.

Democrats have been concerned about Mueller’s status for months. Only now are a significant number of Republicans joining those who worry that Trump will pull the trigger. What’s funny is that there is also new outcry among conservatives that Democrats are trying to goad Trump into firing Mueller. Apparently they think that demanding that Trump leave Mueller alone is a sophisticated reverse psychology scheme by crafty leftists to get him to do the opposite. How insidious those Democrats are. But Media Matters has compiled evidence of who is actually trying to force Trump to act against Mueller. And it’s mostly people on Fox News:

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

With Mueller Looming, Trump Auditions Alan Dershowitz to Be His Newest Fox News Spawned Lawyer

Posted by on April 10, 2018 at 7:40 pm. 1 Comments :

The legal swamp that Donald Trump finds himself in continues to get deeper and muddier. The news that his personal attorney, Michael Cohen had his home and office raided can only be regarded as a bad omen. And while Trump is flailing in a legal morass, his legal representation is falling apart. Along with Cohen’s troubles, Trump lost his lead attorney, John Dowd, last week. And Dowd’s replacement, Joseph DiGenova, was hired and fired within the space of a couple of days.

Robert Mueller Trump

This leaves a legal team that consists of Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow, neither of whom have any expertise in the sort of political intrigue that is engulfing Trump. Consequently, he needs to expand his legal roster with someone who has the appropriate skills and competence. Unfortunately, Trump doesn’t know anyone with those qualities. Plus, many of those people have already turned the President’s offer of employment down. The only people Trump knows are the ones he sees on television. That’s why he is now meeting with Alan Dershowitz, O.J. Simpson’s attorney and frequent Fox News guest.

Dershowitz has been spending a lot of time lately on Fox defending Trump and criticizing anyone who has an opinion that doesn’t advance Trump’s interests. Dershowitz insists that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is running an illegal shop that should never have opened up in the first place. He believes that obstruction of justice cannot be alleged absent an underlying crime. Regarding pardons, he takes the absurd position that “engaging in a constitutionally authorized act cannot be the basis of a criminal charge.” Were that true, a president could solicit a hit man to murder an opponent with the promise that he’ll get pardoned.

Dershowitz has been actively arguing Trump’s case before the court of public opinion. And coincidentally, every opinion he expresses is one that’s pro-Trump. His prominence and obvious biases as aired on Fox News is certainly what brought him to Trump’s attention. So now he’s dining at the White House as the legal clouds surrounding Trump get more Stormy. That’s curious considering that just yesterday he told Sean Hannity that “I don’t give advice to the president except on television. If he wants to listen, he can listen.”

Well, now that may all be changing and Dershowitz will become Trump’s advisor. If not, there are still a bunch of wingnut, Trump-fluffing, Fox News “lawyers” up for grabs. “Judge” Jeanine Pirro, Gregg Jarrett, and Kimberly Guilfoyle are all prospects that Trump might consider. Although none of them would actually serve the purpose of advancing his legal interests, they sure could get booked on Fox News to spread his lies and propaganda.

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

Sinclair State-TV Chairman to Trump: ‘We Are Here to Deliver Your Message’

Posted by on April 10, 2018 at 2:04 pm. 1 Comments :

As the walls close in on Donald Trump and his crime syndicate associates, the conservative propaganda networks are furiously trying to twist the facts into an unrecognizable perversion of reality. Fox News is at the top of the list of Trump-fluffing sycophants with hosts and contributors who relentlessly defend the President and smear his critics.

Donald Trump

However, Fox News is not alone on that battlefront. Sinclair Broadcasting is moving at breakneck speed to offer an alternative to Fox that is even more extreme and irresponsibly dishonest. With their “must run” segments featuring former Trump shill Boris Epshteyn, and their mandatory corporate written screeds against “fake” news, Sinclair poses a serious risk to journalism and democracy.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Sinclair’s chairman, David Smith, made a deal with Trump to provide him positive coverage if he granted them greater access. They were blatantly selling their integrity to get closer to Trump. Now the Guardian is reporting that Smith was even more servile when he secretly met with Trump at the White House. The Guardian discloses that:

“The chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group met Donald Trump at the White House during a visit to pitch a potentially lucrative new product to administration officials, the Guardian has learned.

“David D Smith, whose company has been criticised for making its anchors read a script echoing Trump’s attacks on the media, said he briefed officials last year on a system that would enable authorities to broadcast direct to any American’s phone.

“‘I just wanted them to be aware of the technology,” Smith said in an interview. He also recalled an earlier meeting with Trump during the 2016 election campaign, where he told the future president: ‘We are here to deliver your message.'”

Oh really? Promising to be there to deliver a president’s message is not the mission of a legitimate news enterprise. To the contrary, it’s the mission of journalistic lackeys with a political agenda who are brazenly and unabashedly biased. And everything that Sinclair does affirms that it is serving as a mouthpiece for Trump and the Republican Party.

The Guardian also asked Smith about the rightward leanings of his operation, which he forthrightly denied. He called assertions that the scripts he forced his anchors to read were biased in favor of Trump “the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” That’s like Hannibal Lecter feigning offense that anyone might suggest he eats people. But his justification for that denial just made matters even worse. He said that:

“If people believe you more than they believe somebody else, they’re more likely to watch you,” he said. “And you know what that means? We might get a higher rating. And you know what that means? We will therefore make our spots worth more. And you know what that means? That means I will make more money, which means I can pay you more money.”

In summary, he’s saying that it’s his policy to convince viewers that all other sources of news are false. And the purpose of that slander is to discredit the press at large in order to get more viewers for Sinclair. That’s different than competing news organizations touting their skills and experience to appeal to their audience. It is a cult-like scheme to convince gullible people that only one truth exists and that Sinclair owns it. And it dovetails perfectly with Trump’s cultist tendencies that aim to achieve the same blind loyalty.

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

Sinclair is currently trying to expand their reach by buying their largest competitor, Tribune Media. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission is likely to approve the acquisition, despite its breach of existing regulations. The American people need to join together to preserve the integrity of our free press. And one way to do that is to visit Stop Sinclair and lobby Congress to intervene to oppose this dangerous, anti-consumer merger.

‘WITCH HUNT’: Donald Trump Responds to the FBI Raid of His Attorney Michael Cohen (Video)

Posted by on April 9, 2018 at 4:04 pm. 4 Comments :

It’s Mueller Monday and the breaking news about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump’s crime family has just broken new ground. The New York Times reported earlier that the FBI raided the home, office, and hotel room of Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen. This can only be viewed as a serious escalation of the legal jeopardy that Trump faces. So naturally, he is lashing out with wild accusations against the law enforcement agencies that are performing their duties to protect the public welfare.

Donald Trump

In his response, Trump made some familiar criticisms that have been the core of his past whining about being the subject of this investigation. In a brief press availability during a national security meeting, Trump said:

  • “It’s a disgraceful situation.”
  • “I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over twelve months now.”
  • “It’s an attack on our country…what we all stand for.”
  • The special counsel office is “the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen.”
  • No one “is looking at the other side (i.e. Hillary Clinton).”
  • “A whole new level of unfairness.”
  • “Why don’t I just fire Mueller? Well, I think it’s a disgrace, and we’ll see what happens.”

These lame and tedious complaints do nothing to counter the devastating news of this raid. Nor do they advance any argument that it was improper or help him to establish innocence. We have heard it all before and majorities of the American people don’t believe him.

Of note is his assertion that this is an attack on our country. Um…No it isn’t. This is all about Trump’s sleazy and likely illegal behavior and that of his associates. Calling the special counsel’s office “conflicted” has always been ludicrous. Mueller is a life-long Republican, as is is boss at the Department of Justice, Rod Rosenstein (who Trump appointed). And no one should be surprised by Trump’s interjection of “whataboutism” with his left field swipe at Hillary Clinton, who has been investigated ad infinitum with no hint of wrongdoing being discovered.

Perhaps the most ominous part of Trump’s remarks refers to the possible firing of Mueller. Trump has said in the past that he is not even considering such a thing. Now he says that “we’ll see what happens.” That’s a sharp u-turn in the direction of terminating the special counsel or Rosenstein. And if that happens, rest assured that the rest of his house of cards will quickly tumble down.

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

In Defense of Fox News (?): Trust in Media Graphic Was Early, Not Censored

Posted by on April 9, 2018 at 11:44 am. NO Comments :

There is no question that Fox News is the most brazenly biased right-wing distorter of reality that has even been broadcast. It’s executives, hosts, and contributors are almost entirely devoted to disseminating conservative propaganda, much of it dictated by Donald Trump’s White House. Even worse, Trump’s positions are often dictated by Fox News.

Fox News Lies

That said, there has been a story circulating around the InterTubes that is just plain wrong. It asserts that Howard Kurtz, host of Fox’s MediaBuzz, was surprised by a graphic that showed Fox News as being the least trusted cable news network, and that he called for it to taken down in order to suppress that anti-Fox information. There is a lot wrong with that assertion.

First of all, there was a graphic that appeared during Kurtz’s program that was out of place. Kurtz did ask that it be taken down. But that’s only because it was out of sequence. When that part of the discussion came up a couple of minutes later, he showed that graphic again at the proper time. There was no attempt to censor it. (See video below).

Also, the argument that this graphic was taken down because it showed Fox News as trusted less than MSNBC and CNN is not accurate. The Monmouth University survey that was the basis for the graphic’s data did not compare the networks’ trustworthiness. It compared whether respondents trusted Trump or the media more. That’s actually worse from Trump’s perspective. Although that misreading is largely the fault of Fox News. The graphic needs to be read left to right, not top down. By highlighting the column instead of the rows Fox invited the misinterpretations. As News Corpse previously wrote about this poll:

“Like other polls before it, Monmouth found that Americans trust the media more than they do Donald Trump. That’s gotta sting the President who has been striving furiously to turn the nation against the press. The detail shows that 48 percent of Americans trust CNN more than Trump (35% trust Trump more). Forty-five percent trust MSNBC more than Trump (32% for Trump). Even 30 percent trust Fox News more than Trump (20% for Trump). Although the Fox numbers also show that a plurality of 37 percent trust both equally. This affirms that Trump’s base is still immovably stuck in the low thirties.”

The original story asserting that Fox News was embarrassed by an errant graphic and deep-sixed it appears to have been published by the Associated Press. They have since corrected their story. But it’s important that the record be correct in the progressive media so as to preserve our moral claim to being reality-based. There are more than enough legitimate examples of Fox News lying. And the findings in the poll are bad enough for Trump that they don’t need to be muddied up with misunderstandings.

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

‘Far More Fiction than Fact’: Trump Tweets the Perfect Description of His Own Twitter Feed

Posted by on April 8, 2018 at 10:52 am. 2 Comments :

Heaven forbid that a single Sunday would go by without Donald Trump assuming his position on his throne and proclaiming the way the world is – or should be – on Twitter. His pronouncements have become a regular feature of the daily life of the White House. And this Sunday was no different as Trump took on everything from Hillary Clinton to Syria’s “Animal Assad” to President Obama.

Donald Trump Toilet

Of particular note was Trump’s latest broadside at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his Washington Post. The tweet was a familiar attack on the newspaper that he hates so viscerally. And it all stemmed from an article that revealed the diminished status of his Chief of Staff, John Kelly.

Notice that Trump’s criticism is as substantively vacant as usual. He doesn’t cite one story that is “made up garbage.” He doesn’t give one example of anything being “poorly written.” And he can’t backup his delusional assertion that “many of [the sources] don’t exist.” He is just ranting uncontrollably in a fit of sweaty rage, unable to contain his anxiety or support the wild notions he is spewing. It’s another symptom of the fear that is eating him up. Although it is an excellent description of the blather he posts on Twitter.

The article in the Washington Post that got him all riled up was titled “‘When you lose that power’: How John Kelly faded as White House disciplinarian.” The Post did extensive research and was “based on interviews with 16 administration officials, outside advisers and presidential confidants, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to assess the chief of staff.”” The use of undisclosed sources is a critical part of journalism. It protects people in positions to know detailed and intimate facts from the retribution of powerful bosses. Every legitimate news enterprises uses them. Trump even uses them and cites articles where they’ve been used, so long as the article advances his interests.

For some idea of what made Trump go berserk this Sunday morning, here are a few choice excerpts from the Post that paint an accurate picture of the chaos in Trump’s White House:

“The recurring and escalating clashes between the president and his chief of staff trace the downward arc of Kelly’s eight months in the White House. Both his credibility and his influence have been severely diminished, administration officials said, a clear decline for the retired four-star Marine Corps general who arrived with a reputation for integrity and a mandate to bring order to a chaotic West Wing.”

“After White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly pressured President Trump last fall to install his top deputy, Kirstjen Nielsen, atop the Department of Homeland Security, the president lost his temper when conservative allies argued that she wasn’t sufficiently hard line on immigration. ‘You didn’t tell me she was a [expletive] George W. Bush person.'”

“Kelly neither lurks around the Oval Office nor listens in on as many of the president’s calls, even with foreign leaders. He has not been fully consulted on several recent key personnel decisions. And he has lost the trust and support of some of the staff, as well as angered first lady Melania Trump, who officials said was upset over his sudden dismissal of Johnny McEntee, the president’s 27-year-old personal aide.”

“White House chief of staff John Kelly grew so frustrated on the day Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was fired that both Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Defense Secretary James Mattis attempted to calm him down.”

Candid observers have noticed that Trump is increasingly perturbed with Kelly’s attempts to shackle him and rein in his worst impulses. According to one source, Trump said that he was “tired of being told no” by Kelly. Consequently, Trump has been leaving Kelly out of the loop on important matters. For instance, Kelly was not around when the President called Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on winning a sham election. Nor was Kelly consulted about the hiring of John Bolton to be his next national security adviser.

The article quotes Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta saying that “There are few things worse than being an impotent chief of staff. When you lose that power you become a virtual White House intern, being told where to go and what to do.” However, in Trump’s mind there are things much worse than that. Like losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, or allowing DREAMers to remain in the only country they know as home, or being exposed as a collaborator with Russian enemies to win an election and then obstructing justice to hide the truth.

But the most heinous atrocity that Trump can experience is the fact, and public awareness, that he is a loser at the things he thinks he excels at (which, of course, is everything). And that may be why he is so maddened by Jeff Bezos. It’s an embarrassment that was perfectly stated by this Washington Post editor to CNN’s Brian Stelter. And it is very likely the root cause of Trump’s derangement:

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

Hannity vs Kimmel: Fox News Host’s Obsession with Other People’s Sexual Lives is Creepy

Posted by on April 7, 2018 at 2:26 pm. 4 Comments :

For the past couple of days Twitter has been the stage of an epic battle between the top dog at Fox News, Sean Hannity, and a formidable political intellectual and social scientist – oops – I mean comedian Jimmy Kimmel. And even a late night jokester has proven to be too much of challenge for Hannity’s severely limited cognitive abilities. Kimmel took the whole thing as good, not-so-clean fun. But Hannity had a cerebral spasm that threatened to burst a blood vessel in his ample forehead.

Fox News, Sean Hannity, Jimmy Kimmel

The feud began when Kimmel made a lighthearted joke about First Lady Melania Trump’s accent when reading to kids at a White House Easter event. Kimmel merely repeated her pronunciation of “dis and dat.” Dat’s it. It was hardly a sharp elbowed political jab. But it drove Hannity to distraction wherein he literally couldn’t think of anything else. Much of his day on Friday was consumed with manic tweets attacking Kimmel as a “despicable,” “perverted,” “racist asshole.” He took to calling Kimmel “Harvey Weinstein, Jr.” in a callous trivialization of a real perpetrator of sexual assault. Most of the Twitter battle can be seen here.

Later that evening, Hannity spent most of his Friday program ranting about Kimmel and vowing to destroy him. Hannity criticizes Kimmel for “losing his mind for five minutes on his show,” just before devoting almost the whole hour of his own show to Kimmel bashing. And after getting so freaked out over Kimmel’s joke directed at a First Lady, Hannity attacks Michelle Obama. His tantrum also included baseless accusations that Kimmel relentlessly bashed all Republicans 24/7 and “kissed Obama’s ass.” Actually, Kimmel has been fairly apolitical until the recent difficulties he had with his sick newborn. It was after his advocacy of healthcare reforms that the right started attacking him. And Hannity promises to escalate this one-sided war. On his program he said that…

“I am going after Jimmy Kimmel tonight. We’re gonna pound him with his own words. […] I’m throwing down the gauntlet. I’m not gonna stop. They are gonna stop by the time it’s done. […] For me this is it. I’ll just stay on this, and I’ll roll tape of Jimmy Kimmel every night for the rest of my career.”

Well, that at least would be more entertaining than having to watch Hannity. But his sanctimonious sermonizing about some Kimmel bits that Hannity dug up from the two decade old Comedy Central program “The Man Show” don’t really help him much. Mainly because it casts Hannity as the sexually obsessed pervert who finds salaciousness in what everyone else sees as just raunchy comedy. And Hannity shouldn’t be throwing stones. He’s the guy who sees secretly placed images of sperm in President Obama’s portrait. He charged CNN president Jeff Zucker with being the “scandal-plagued” “king of porn.” He’s had his own run-in with allegations of sexual harassment. And then there was the time he propositioned a “really hot looking chick in the third row” of his audience and asked if she would “Wanna meet me later?”

Remember, Kimmel’s joke had nothing to do with sex. It was about Melania’s accent. But Hannity turned the whole affair into a sleaze-fest. Because that’s what’s on his diseased mind. Every year he does a week of programs about Spring Break where he castigates America’s youth while running endless footage of bikini-clad girls.

And let’s not forget that he’s on a network that has a distinct problem with misogyny. The network’s CEO, Roger Ailes, was fired for multiple incidents of sexual harassment. Then their biggest star, Bill O’Reilly, was tossed out after the discovery of tens millions of dollars paid to secure the silence of his victims. Fox also jettisoned its president, Bill Shine; host Eric Bolling; Fox Sports President, Jamie Horowitz; and VP of Fox News Latino, Francisco Cortes, all for similarly abhorrent misconduct. Most recently the wives of Fox hosts Jesse Watters and Pete Hegseth filed for divorce due to their public infidelities.

One thing is clear: Sean Hannity is working at just the right network for his brand of perversion. It’s a network that has canonized serial predator Donald Trump and supported the senate candidacy of pedophile Roy Moore. Fox News is a breeding ground for perverts. They hire and promote men who blatantly demean and abuse women. The environment was described accurately by former Fox News host and victim Andrea Tantaros in her lawsuit as “a sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult, steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.” Hannity must be loving it. But he probably isn’t too happy about being beaten regularly by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. And that may be the real reason he is jumping on Kimmel. It’s a desperate and lame attempt to goose his ratings. And it isn’t going to work any better than his Pizza-Gate episodes.

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

Tough Guy Trump is a Trembling Coward – Too Scared to Face the Media He Says is Fake

Posted by on April 6, 2018 at 3:35 pm. 4 Comments :

It has been 441 days since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Less than one month later he held his first news conference. And despite innumerable scandals, outrages, embarrassments, and crimes, he hasn’t held another one since. That’s right, the President of the United States has only had one solo news conference during his entire term in office to date. What’s more, he hasn’t sat for an interview with a major news network other than Fox News for more than a year.

Donald Trump

For most that time, Trump has been a vocal opponent of the free press and the First Amendment. He has called the media “the enemy of the American people.” He banned certain news organizations from his rallies. He proposed licensing of journalists and/or revoking licenses of broadcasters he regarded as too critical. The Committee to Protect Journalists declared that Trump is “undermining global press freedom.” And his relentless (and tedious) repetition of “fake news” whenever someone in the press tells the truth about him has become the hallmark of his presidency.

For all his tough talk it is apparent that Donald Trump is a coward. He is a whining baby whose impotent rants only illustrate how scared he is of the media he tries to bully. And now he has informed the White House Correspondents Association that he will not be attending their annual dinner for the second year in a row. And why should he? He has called the other attendees sleazy, dishonest, corrupt, and horrible people. So he’s sending his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to fill in for him as the designated liar for the administration. She should be a suitable substitute for the Liar-in-Chief. It’s just like her day job.

Trump’s failure to hold a news conference breaks decades old practices of presidents answering to the American people through their media surrogates. His single appearance contrasts with the far more accessible policies of his predecessors. Barack Obama, in his first year in office, held seven news conferences. George W. Bush did four. Bill Clinton did eleven. George H. W. Bush did twenty-seven. Ronald Reagan did six. Jimmy Carter did twenty-two. Gerald Ford did four. And Richard Nixon did six.

And it’s not as if Trump doesn’t recognize the importance of news conferences. During the campaign he criticized Hillary Clinton for what he regarded as a wholly improper avoidance of the media:

If Clinton’s alleged media shyness for seven months was an indication that she had a terrible record that could not be defended, then what does that say about Trump’s fourteen months of cowering in the safety of the White House and his private resorts? It is unmistakable that his outbursts are the result of an inner terror of being held accountable. In the past year there have been dozens of incidents that the American people want and deserve to hear the President explain. From Russia to porn stars to racism to economic crises, this president refuses to answer questions in a setting where reporters can challenge his authoritarian tactics.

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

At some point the media needs to make this an issue. If Trump will not hold a news conference, or venture out of his Fox News cocoon, they should stop covering his rallies and propaganda photo ops. He can communicate via Twitter and call-ins to Fox and Friends. But the press has stop tolerating his delegitimization of the media. There are plenty of other ways to inform the public about his activities. Including gavel-to-gavel coverage of his impeachment.