Samantha Bee Was Agreeing With Trump Who Once Bragged About His ‘C*nty Demeanor’

America is getting a crash course in both vulgarity and expressing remorse this week. First we had Roseanne Barr’s heinously racist tweets comparing Valerie Jarrett to an ape. That was followed shortly by Samantha Bee calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless c*nt” for failing to use her influence over her father to help immigrant kids.

Donald Trump, Samantha Bee

These are both examples of bad judgment by media professionals who ought to know better. However, Bee’s commentary was part of an appeal to help children who were ripped from their mothers’ arms by heartless government agents. Roseanne, on the other hand, delivered a purely bigoted attack for no reason other than to vent her hatred. Either way, neither of them should have made such obviously offensive remarks in public forums.

Ever since these outbursts, liberals and conservatives have flooded the media with justifications and/or apologies. Many have offered up examples of similar behavior in an effort to diminish the failings of their own side. The right threw Bill Maher into the mix, as if he were a leftist icon (he’s not). The left had more ammunition to work with. They could just mention Ted Nugent (who called Hillary Clinton a c*nt and a whore) and the debate would be over.

And then there is Donald Trump. The Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief himself. The man who has hurled these same types of words as insults toward everyone from Ted Cruz to Michelle Obama. Only the most glassy-eyed disciple of the Trump Cult would deny that he is the most profane cretin to ever occupy the White House. And as it turns out, Trump would probably agree himself. That would account for this tweet that he posted with a perverse sense of pride:

Anyone who has spent ten minutes studying Trump has already observed his extreme narcissism combined with the swagger of someone who revels in his image as a bad ass. He insults friends and foes with glee. He is allergic to apologies, remorse, or shame. So it isn’t surprising that a fan would compliment him on his being a – let’s say supreme jackass – and he happily affirms it.

Consequently, what Bee said wasn’t far from the appraisal that Trump has of himself. Presumably he regards it as a family trait that his kids, including Ivanka, would have inherited. He surely doesn’t see it as disparaging. So there is really nothing for Bee to apologize for. She just recognized a character trait in the Trump family that he has already admitted to having. And he’s proud of it. Perhaps he should thank Bee for recognizing a part of him that he regards as an asset.

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

Kid Reporter Steals Show at WH Press Briefing, But Sanders Ducks Question on School Shootings

The Wednesday edition of the White House Press briefing was mostly in line with previous sessions. Sarah Huckabee Sanders conducted her routine delivery of lies posing as responses to reporters’ questions. Although there were some inquiries that are unique to Donald Trump’s administration. Such as how the President justifies his baseless claims that his campaign was infiltrated by FBI spies. Or whether Trump had spoken to Roseanne Barr after her show was cancelled due to her racist tweeting.

Sarah Huckabee-Sanders

However, the most extraordinary moment of the briefing was when Benje Choucroun was recognized for a question. Choucroun is a student at Marin Country Day School and was attending the briefing as a correspondent for Time for Kids magazine. His question was one that has special significance for all of America’s kids, and adults as well. He asked (video below):

“At my school, we recently we had a lockdown drill. One thing that affects mine and other students’ mental health is worrying about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school. Specifically, can you tell me what the administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?”

Considering that it has been less than two weeks since the most recent fatalities at the shooting at Santa Fe High School, this is a pertinent question that deserves a straight answer. Unfortunately, he was directing it to someone who had no intention of providing that kind of answer. Sanders very obviously evaded the question, declining to address it with the specifics that Choucroun requested:

“I think that as a kid and certainly as a parent, there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so I am sorry that you feel that way. This administration takes it seriously and the school safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week in an official meeting to discuss the best ways forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids in our schools and to make them feel safe and make their parents feel good about dropping them off.”

It’s notable that Sanders’ voice broke with apparent emotion while giving this reply. But that didn’t make the answer any less hollow and devoid of substance. She basically said that it’s too bad that you have to suffer like this and we are holding meetings to talk about it. She didn’t mention that the meetings were often restricted to the leadership of the National Rifle Association, or other partisan groups who refuse to acknowledge that guns are a major part of the problem. This administration has sold out the lives of America’s children for the profits of the NRA and its weapons manufacturer members.

It will be interesting to see what Choucroun’s report looks like when it’s published. For the most part, it has been the kids who have provided the most honest and effective dialog on this issue, beginning with the courageous students from Parkland, Florida’s Stoneman Douglas High School. And while it’s disappointing that Trump’s spokesperson so brazenly dodged Choucroun’s question, it’s inspiring that he asked it so profoundly and articulately.

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

Trump Zings AG Sessions with Quote by GOP Chairman that Ignores His Debunking of ‘Spygate’

Republican House Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy attended a classified Department of Justice briefing last week with the congressional “Gang of Eight” (top members of both parties). The meeting was arranged by Donald Trump to improperly disclose information about an informant used by the FBI during its investigation of suspicious contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. This is the core of the controversy that Trump has been railing against for months as he tries to discredit the FBI and the inquiry by special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump refers to it as a hoax and calls it the “Collusion Witch Hunt.” Never mind that there have already been dozens of indictments and five guilty pleas. That’s a lot of witches, and it’s a long way from being over.

Donald Trump Jeff Sessions

Shortly after the meeting Democrat Adam Schiff told the press that there was nothing in the presentation that confirmed Trump’s wild accusations that the FBI planted a “spy” in his campaign. But Republicans said nothing at all, fueling speculation that what Schiff said was accurate. Now Gowdy has come forward and corroborated Schiff’s account. He said that:

“I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.”

So Gowdy disagrees completely with Trump’s baseless “spygate” malarkey. However, on Tuesday evening Trump held a rally in Nashville where he brought up the matter and stated as a fact that the FBI had infiltrated his campaign. He offered no further proof of the allegation, but he got the response he expected from the glassy-eyed disciples in his audience. Which is what he was going for on Wednesday morning when he tweeted some remarks from Gowdy that left out entirely the sharp rebuking above. Trump focused on whether or not he should have selected Jeff Sessions to be his Attorney General:

The problem with that version of events is that Sessions could not have known at the time of his appointment that he would have to recuse himself. For one thing, there was no “most important case” in progress at the time of Sessions’ appointment. For another, the reason for the recusal included Sessions’ testimony at his confirmation hearings where he denied having any contact with Russians. That was false. Consequently, he made himself a potential witness in the investigation which required his recusal. So Trump is criticizing Sessions for not having “shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job,” which would have been impossible without being able to see into the future.

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

All of this points to additional evidence of Trump’s guilt and subsequent efforts to obstruct justice. Add to this the new report that Trump tried to get Sessions to reverse his recusal, which would have been a clear violation of legal ethics. Not that ethics ever had anything to do with what Trump does or says. But that attempt has now become another plank in Mueller’s probe.

Roseanne vs. Trump: You Can Lose Your Job If You’re a Racist – Unless You’re the President

The media is buzzing over the surprise cancellation of Roseanne. Not that it wasn’t warranted, just that corporations making a fortune off of disgusting celebrities usually find ways to justify preserving their revenue stream. ABC deserves credit for doing the right thing in this case.

Donald Trump, Roseanne Barr

Roseanne’s tweet on Tuesday was about as repulsive an act of overt racism as you’re ever likely to see by such a well known pubic figure. The deleted tweet likened former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape. That isn’t a joke, as Roseanne tried to use as an excuse. It’s a window into her rotting soul. It’s no wonder that ABC’s announcement of the cancellation referred to Roseanne’s remarks as “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.” Even her co-star and producer, Sara Gilbert, blasted Roseanne for the comments that have made them all unemployed (which sadly includes many innocent people in the cast and crew).

But Roseanne’s racism doesn’t exist in a vacuum. She is a player in of the Age of Trump wherein bigots have become emboldened to proudly proclaim their foul prejudices. She is comfortable enough to not only entertain these thoughts, but to say them out loud. It is a state of mind that is emblematic of professional racists like David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan – and Donald Trump.

The difference between Roseanne and Trump, however, is that she is subject to her show being cancelled as a consequence of her nauseating behavior. But Trump still resides in the White House despite having done the same thing as Roseanne, only many times more and often worse. His five year obsession with the racist lie that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and thus ineligible to be President, was what Trump used to boost his political aspirations. His speech announcing his candidacy was rife with bigoted expressions about Latinos.

And if all of that weren’t bad enough, Trump courted and embraced the support of virulent racist and neo-Nazi groups. He retweeted memes from Klan-affiliated people and Hitler supporters. He even called fascist protesters in Charlottesville “fine people.”

These are sentiments that Trump and Roseanne share. They both have toxic personalities with malicious intent. Earlier on Tuesday Roseanne was posting horrendous lies about Chelsea Clinton and George Soros. She first stated falsely that Chelsea was married to a Soros nephew. After being corrected by Chelsea, Roseanne made heinous allegations about Soros working with the Nazis. That’s not only untrue, it’s stupid in the extreme. Soros was a thirteen year old Jewish refugee at the time. But that didn’t stop Don, Jr. from retweeting Roseanne’s bile.

It’s no wonder that Trump and Roseanne get along so well. They have bonded in the same way that Klan members do. They have all the same mental deficiencies and hate all the same people. It will be interesting to see how Trump responds to his friend’s cancellation. Will he defend her and attack the “liberal” media? Will he accuse Obama and his “Deep State” cabal of having gotten her fired? Or will he say nothing at all about her repulsive comments, thereby giving them his passive approval?

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

One more thing: ABC Television is owned by the Walt Disney Company. Disney is currently trying to complete the acquisition of 21st Century Fox (most of the entertainment businesses, not including Fox News). Will Trump intercede to block the acquisition as he has done with AT&T and Time Warner? He is certainly that spiteful and unconcerned about the law. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Trump held a rally in Nashville Tuesday night and never mentioned Roseanne. And he hasn’t tweeted anything in over 20 hours. Apparently he isn’t offended by his fellow racist’s comments. Plus, Roseanne has been tweeting up a storm after saying that she was leaving Twitter. Including several affirmations of her disgusting lies about Soros. Also, I facetiously speculated that Trump might blame Obama for Roseanne’s cancellation. But Roseanne herself did so, retweeting this:

Roseanne Barr, Michelle Obama

UPDATE 2: Trump finally responded by whining about not getting his own apology from ABC “for the HORRIBLE statements made” about him.” Poor thing. That’s because all of the horrible things said about him are true. But while obsessing over himself (as usual) he said nothing critical about Roseanne’s racist remarks. And that’s because he probably agrees with them.

Fox News Falsely Accuses African-American Journalist of Pizza-Gating Donald Trump

This has been a dreadful week for Donald Trump. His efforts to invent a so-called “SPY” scandal revolving around his collusion with Russia have fallen flat. His on-again, off-again summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un have made him look impulsive and irrational. He was caught gaslighting the nation by denying that his own spokesperson exists. He ludicrously tried to blame Democrats for his administration’s disgusting policy of separating immigrant children from their parents. And on Memorial Day our draft-dodging president tweeted a tribute to himself rather than to fallen soldiers.

Fox News, April Ryan

Consequently, State-TV (aka Fox News) had get its wheels spinning to produce their customary Trump-fluffing defenses of the President or, in lieu of that, some efficient diversions. With regard to the latter, Fox News conjured up a fake controversy about one of their favorite foils in the press, April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks. Ryan is well known for taking Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to task for brazenly lying during the White House press briefings. So the Trump regime has at least two reasons to want smear Ryan: She’s honestly critical, and she’s black. She also has a new book out: Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House.

On Saturday Robert Gearty of Fox News Digital published a story online that falsely accused Ryan of stepping out of the bounds of journalistic ethics. The article was headlined: “CNN’s April Ryan slammed for tweeting article about Trump running child-trafficking ring.” “Ryan is being criticized,” Gearty said, for retweeting “a story in The Root that asks if the Trump administration is involved in child sex-trafficking.” Gearty continued with a statement by Melania Trump’s spokesperson lecturing Ryan on the “core purpose of a journalist.” And he filled the remainder of the article with some random tweets criticizing Ryan.

The objections that Fox was raising about Ryan concerned her retweet of an article from the black politics and culture website “The Root.” That article was headlined: “Is the Trump Administration Running a Child-Trafficking Ring or Nah? Follow Me Down the Rabbit Hole.” Going by that headline alone, Fox News leaped to the conclusion that Ryan was charging the President with aiding and abetting child trafficking. The Fox headline explicitly declares that the article in The Root made a factual allegation about Trump engaging in illegal acts involving children.

Of course, a reading of the short article reveals that it was just the opposite. The author, Jason Johnson, was pointing out the irony of how Trump and his minions in the rightist media will try to turn anything negative about Trump’s critics into a Trumped-up scandal. But that the left leaning media doesn’t do that. Case in point, the stories about the Trump administration’s policy of ripping apart immigrant families, and the fact that some of the kids are now missing in the system and thought to be in the hands of child traffickers. But The Root’s article was not charging Trump with anything other than a heartless anti-immigrant, anti-family policy. Johnson writes that…

“…none of this means that Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump are part of some vast conspiracy to sell minority children to the highest bidder like some scene out of Taken 4: Bad Hombres. […] However, why be hamstrung by the facts, as bad as they are? Trump has shown America that you can get away with whatever salacious, ridiculous and unfounded conspiracy you want as long as you say it loudly enough and find enough other people to repeat it.”

Clearly Johnson was criticizing those who leap to unfounded conclusions. But Fox News took that and immediately leaped to an unfounded conclusion. And it didn’t stop there. Fox’s media reporter, Brian Flood, engaged Ryan in a Twitter debate on this subject (see Twitter thread below) wherein he not only doubles-down on the false charge against Ryan, he also implies that either Ryan’s readers, or Twitter users generally, are shallow idiots who only read headlines. Maybe he’s just referring to the Fox News audience, in which case – no argument there.

The bottom line is that Fox News made a thoroughly false accusation against Ryan based on their inbred biases and inability to read a short article. Then they attacked Ryan further for calling them out on it. And these were Fox’s media reporters who so completely fail to understand their own job or do the slightest bit of research in order to report accurately. But then, accurate reporting is contrary to the mission of Fox News and would likely result in their termination if they were to do any.

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

Click here to view the whole thread:

Trump Cries for the ‘Young and Beautiful Lives’ Destroyed – Because of Him and His Crimes

There is something terribly wrong with the American president that is rooted in pure evil and an inbred aversion to decency. That was demonstrated on Sunday morning when he tweeted something so repulsive it can only make honorable people nauseous.

Donald Trump

Some background: This week Donald Trump attacked Democrats for what he called “the horrible law that separates children from there parents.” He was referring to his own administration’s policy of detaining immigrants and separating kids – including infants – from their mothers and fathers. These children have been taken while screaming for their mothers and placed in government custody in unknown locations without communication for weeks and months on end. Reports indicate that the whereabouts of as many 1,500 of these children are now unknown, and some are suspected to have been handed over to human traffickers.

Despite Trump’s absurd and false claim that this was due to a law attributable to Democrats, the truth is that there is no such law mandating this horrendous activity. It is solely the policy of the Trump administration, which they previously admitted and even bragged about. They considered it an effective deterrent to immigrants. Chopping off their legs might also serve as a deterrent, but America should not be about torturing people physically or through the the trauma of family separation.

So Trump’s response to the reports of children being yanked out of their crying mothers’ arms was to tweet this:

Good lord. That sickening comment is almost too ridiculous to decipher any meaning from. Presumably it’s Trump’s way of equating the tearing apart of families seeking asylum with the political blowback from working for Trump. He’s seems to be talking about adults who choose to be employed in the White House but may now find it difficult to get other jobs. But that’s only because an association with this president is almost automatically an indicator of bad character. He generally recruits people who will lie shamelessly for him and have no sense of human empathy. What reputable employer would want someone like that on their staff?

It’s notable that Trump didn’t give any examples of these “young and beautiful” victims. They probably include the 71 year old Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who is currently facing multiple indictments. Or maybe Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Or perhaps his young policy aide George Papadopoulos, who also pleaded guilty and has been cited as one of the original Trump insiders who sought to collude with Russian operatives during the election. These poor souls are indeed returning to home (or prison) in tatters, and deservedly so.

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

By trying to connect the suffering for this kind of criminal, and perhaps traitorous, behavior to what innocent immigrant children are enduring is what makes Trump’s latest tweet so monstrously abhorrent. It is further proof that he is an unrepentant narcissist, concerned only for his own welfare and the defense of his fragile ego. And it is to America’s eternal shame that he was ever put in a position of power where he can do and say things like this. It is now up to the nation to try to correct this error and, not just remove him from office, but punish him for his crimes.

Obama’s Press Briefings Were Tongue Baths – Says Trump’s Tongue Bath Team on Fox News

Barack Obama has now been out of office for sixteen months. But that hasn’t stopped Donald Trump from obsessing over him and making poorly constructed comparisons that only reveal his insecurity and jealousy. Naturally, Fox News is right there to stroke Trump’s fragile ego with positive affirmations and ludicrous conspiracy theories.

Obama Fox News

On Saturday Trump’s favorite TV show, Fox and Friends, interviewed radical Chrisianist Mike Huckabee, whose daughter is the President’s press secretary. In the course of this segment Fox News reported comments made by Obama in jest at a recent tech conference. Obama said of his presidency that:

“There wasn’t any malicious intent, which is why I didn’t have scandals, which seems like it shouldn’t be something you brag about. But actually, if you look at the history of the modern presidency, coming out of the modern presidency without anybody going to jail is really good. It’s a big deal.”

Indeed. While it can hardly be claimed that the Obama years were free of error, there were precisely zero indictments or convictions of people associated with his administration in eight years. Obviously the same cannot be said of Trump in only a little over one year. But this unarguable fact became the subject of ridicule by Huckabee and the “Curvy Couch” potatoes on Fox (video below). When asked to comment, Huckabee said of Obama that:

“There were a lot of scandals. The difference was there wasn’t a scrutiny. And you can’t have the kind of scandals that you normally see in Washington if you don’t have a press corps that is doing their job of being a watchdog. In the case of the Obama administration, the press wasn’t a watchdog, they were a lap dog. […] A White House press briefing was a tongue bath.”

That analysis might require an extended pause for laughter. This is an ultra right-wing Obama hater complaining to America’s premiere Trump-fluffers that the press wasn’t tough enough on Obama. All that these Fox and Friends hacks do every day is slobber over Trump with their tongues hanging out and their tails wagging. It would be like Hannibal Lecter taking a waiter to task after finding a hair in his soup. (For the 1990’s pop culture challenged – the dude eats people).

Huckabee sought to debunk the truthful characterization of Obama’s presidency as scandal-free by rattling off what he claimed were bona fide scandals. They included:

  • The delivery of “palettes of cash” to Iran in conjunction with their agreement to scale back their nuclear weapons program.
    That was actually the return of funds that belonged to Iran that had been sequestered while sanctions were in place.
  • The murders of American diplomats in Benghazi.
    After years of congressional investigations and hearings, run by Republicans, it was determined that there was no wrongdoing on the part of anyone in the Obama administration.
  • Allegations that the IRS discriminated against conservative charitable organizations.
    This was debunked when it turned out that they didn’t treat conservatives any differently than they treated liberals. Not one conservative charity was denied its tax exempt status.
  • The so-called Fast and Furious gun running operation.
    This was actually a project that began in the Bush administration.

So giving it their best effort, Huckabee and Fox News were unable to cite a single verifiable scandal that occurred under Obama’s watch. And it wasn’t like Obama had the sort of friendly Congress that Trump has today. Republicans were in charge throughout most of his term. But they still failed to find sufficient evidence to indict or convict anyone from the Obama White House. Contrast that with the dozens of indictments that special counsel Robert Mueller has already obtained, along with five guilty pleas. And to be sure, there are more to come.

The spectacle of Huckabee appearing on State TV (aka Fox News) and trying to make the case that Obama got a free ride is just plain hysterical. If he had said it on any other network it might have been slightly less ridiculous. But saying that the media was overly deferential to Obama on a network that is so flagrantly pro-Trump is the reason that political satire is so hard to do these days. The skewed reality of Fox News and people like Huckabee are just way to funny for comedians to compete with.

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

Advanced Gaslighting: Trump is Now Denying that His Own Spokesperson Exists

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president there has been a debate over whether his frequently absurd comments were the result of his shameless dishonesty or his evident psychological degradation. Of course these are not mutually exclusive explanations for why Trump so flagrantly espouses known lies and insane conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump

In addition to diagnoses that Trump is a pathological liar, he exhibits clear signs of senility. But sometimes his ludicrous remarks are simply purposeful attempts create alternative realities that defy logic and serve no purpose other than to foster confusion and diversion. And if they’re also insulting, he probably thinks he’s hit the jackpot.

On Saturday morning Trump demonstrated this talent he has for irrational outbursts with a tweet attacking his media nemesis, the “failing” New York Times. He was lashing out about reporting on his embarrassing flips and flops with regard to whether he will meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un:

This may be one of the most unarguably deranged tweets Trump has posted to date. The “senior White House official” Trump is denying exists was Matt Pottinger who serves on the National Security Council (as reported by Yasher Ali). Pottinger actually said precisely what Trump is denying to a roomful of reporters with many more listening on a conference call. It was a background briefing that was authorized by the White House and was also attended by Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shaj.

In other words, the statement asserting that it would be impossible to hold the meeting on June 12 was an official White House communication by those responsible for that information. So Trump’s tweet is saying that his own spokespeople don’t exist. He literally said that they are not real people. Donald Trump is calling his own press staffers and national security advisors fake news.

Let that sink in. It’s one thing to falsely claim, as Trump does almost daily, that actual news that he doesn’t like is fake just because he doesn’t like it. He even does this to reporters he personally calls to “leak” information that he thinks he will benefit from. But it’s another thing entirely to send his staffers out to talk to reporters in the White House and then later deny whatever it was that he told them to say.

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

If Trump is going to refute his own official pronouncements from his own designated spokespeople, then the press has no responsibility honor any agreements with regard to those comments being off the record or on background. If a reporter publishes a statement from an anonymous source who lied to the reporter, the reporter is ethically permitted to reveal the identity of the source. And likewise, Trump cannot authorize statements to the media and then castigate the media for reporting what he said. The fact that he does this is proof that he doesn’t respect the press (obviously) or even the principle of truthfulness. And the press should approach everything he says, or whatever comes out of his administration, with the skepticism that his record of brazen dishonesty warrants.

UPDATE: There’s audio of Pottinger saying exactly what the press reported he said – and what Trump said was fake news:

On Fox News RNC Chair Cites Laughably Phony Evidence that Facebook Censors Conservatives

It is a miraculous twist of fate that Fox News and Donald Trump found each other. They both have so much in common. Their shared commitment to telling flagrant lies in pursuit of an ultra right-wing agenda is the tie that binds them in an embrace of harmony and mutual devotion. And if you’re feeling a little nauseous right now, just wait.

Fox News, Diamond & Silk

One of the defining characteristics of modern conservatism is the determination to blame anything and everything, other than themselves, for their problems. Trump is a master at this pretense of victimhood. He is certain that there are clandestine “Deep State” conspirators embedded in the government who are out to get him. Or at least he pretends to believe that. And the media is in on the conspiracy with their constant negative (i.e. truthful) assessments of his disastrous presidency. Every utterance from Trump is either a declaration of unprecedented success for which he is solely responsible, or a historic failure that his enemies blame him for. And Fox News reports all of these things exactly as Trump imagines them.

On Friday, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer interviewed the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna Romney McDaniels, in a segment that perfectly demonstrates the rightist paranoia. McDaniels falsely claimed that Republicans are being censored on social media. She is parroting the whining by many on the right who think that their own failures must be the work of secret foes undermining them from hidden bunkers.

In fact, many people and organizations (including News Corpse) have suffered audience declines recently due to new policies implemented by Facebook and other social media platforms ostensibly to curb fake news. These changes can be legitimately criticized as they are often most harmful to small publishers. But they are not being applied differently based on any political bias. However, that hasn’t stopped Fox News and the GOP from crying foul and feigning outrage. And this segment with the RNC Chair is a perfect example (video below):

McDanniels: “In the history of Facebook there have been instances where they have changed the trending topics. They’ve suppressed conservative viewpoints as we’ve recently seen with Diamond and Silk – that they suspended their account. And we just wanted to preemptively go to Facebook and say that we want assurances that you are not going to suppress conservative voices. That the Silicon Valley thought police is not going to determine what voices filter through on social media platforms.” […]

Hemmer: “Just for the audience, state the evidence as to why you think there is bias on these platforms. I saw one number that suggests a forty percent decline in traffic for conservative viewpoints. Where is the evidence for that, Ronna?”

McDanniels: “Well, Diamond and Silk this morning said that their viewership has gone way down since they were suspended. They have since been reinstated. […] We know that it’s a liberal place in Silicon Valley, that we don’t usually have the same mindset. And we want to make sure that we’re fair and neutral.”

Holy Shitake Mushroom. McDaniels is citing the loopiest Trump-fluffers on Fox News as her evidence of anti-conservative bias. And the only proof of the alleged bias is that Diamond & Silk say so. ThinkProgress did the research and discovered that the fruitcake duo’s Facebook interactions actually increased during the period they claim to have been censored. But they have been telling these lies for quite a while, and even got a surreal hearing before Congress to spin this bullshit.

So without putting a single fact on the table, McDaniels slanders the “Silicon Valley thought police” she imagines are suppressing her Constitutional rights. And Fox’s Hemmer helps her along with a completely unsupported claim that he “saw one number” that he said showed a significant decline for conservatives. And that is the totality of their argument that conservatives are being held down by the all-powerful liberals who control everything on the planet. To reiterate: it’s a number that Hemmer says he saw and wildly false claims by two yokels who can’t string together a coherent sentence. So I guess that settles it.

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

Fox News ‘Judge’ Pirro: If I Were in Charge the President Would Be Playing Golf Right Now

Never let it be said that Fox News doesn’t have its priorities in the right place. They know their mission is to advance the interests of Donald Trump and his perversion of Republican Party politics. They dutifully pursue that mission with enthusiasm for the propaganda they espouse throughout their broadcast day.

Donald Trump, Jeanine Pirro

One of the most devoted disciples of Fox’s Trump Cult is “Judge” Jeanine Pirro. Her spittle-inflected ravings are a unique spectacle on cable news. Even Sean Hannity’s fawning adoration of Dear Leader doesn’t reach the passionate infatuation expressed by Pirro on every episode of her relentless Trump-fluffing program. After all, she recently declared that Trump had “fulfilled the biblical prophecy of the gods.” And on Friday morning she proved why she is viewed as the Fox “personality” who has the most direct line to Trump’s brain.

Pirro was interviewed Friday on Trump’s favorite Fox News program, Fox and Friends (video below). The segment began with a discussion of whether Trump should sit for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller. Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Pirro what she would do if she were in charge. “If I were in charge,” she began, “the President would be playing golf right now. There is no way the President should appear before Bob Mueller.”

OK then. Not only is Pirro against Trump talking to Mueller, she apparently isn’t keen on him doing any presidential work either. She wants Trump to be doing what he does more than anything else: visiting his luxury resorts and playing golf. That’s something he has already done more than 100 times since taking office. And to tell the truth, most Americans would also probably prefer that Trump camp out at Mar-A-Lago rather than do more damage to the nation. But Pirro wasn’t finished giving her view of Trump’s responsibility to the people. But her reasons for having the President avoid a sit-down with Mueller are sorely lacking in reason:

“Think about it. If a sitting president cannot be indicted, and this president were to be questioned, it would only be for the purpose of an indictment. The legislative branch is not gonna be in a position – which is what Mueller would like – to get the testimony of the President so that they can then use it to impeach him. That’s the problem.”

What’s the problem? Pirro isn’t making sense. First of all, there is no law prohibiting the indictment of a sitting President. It’s a rule within the Justice Department that can be changed at any time and has never been tested in court. Trump’s TV lawyer Rudy Giuliani has tried miserably to make the same argument. More to the point, Pirro says that Mueller only wants Trump’s testimony so that Congress can impeach him. Which implies that Trump has something to say that would warrant impeachment. Yes, Jeanine, that is a problem. And it’s also a problem when a president is afraid to talk with a law enforcement investigator. Is there any better indicator of guilt?

Pirro’s opposition to impeachment, however, is limited to its use against Trump. Later in this interview she insisted that Justice Department investigators, including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, should be impeached. Never mind that she offered no justification other than her rabid hostility to anyone who is even tangentially critical of her White House boyfriend. The whole strategy of the White House and its PR division (aka Fox News) is to demean the nation’s institutions of law in order to convince their base that there is massive conspiracy against Trump. But the truth is that it’s reality that is conspiring against the President and his frantic and irrational behavior is proof that he knows it.

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