Month: May 2018

Giuliani’s Mouth Erupts Again, Says Trump Lied About Not Interfering with AT&T/TimeWarner Merger

Posted by on May 12, 2018 at 10:00 am. NO Comments :

It really says something when your brand new attorney can’t stop making incriminating statements about you. Rudy Giuliani recently made the news when he publicly announced to the world that Donald Trump reimbursed his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 hush money payout to Stormy Daniels. That was something that Trump had been denying for months.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

Following that gargantuan gaffe, Giuliani went on a whirlwind tour of the media with clarifications that only made matters worse. If we didn’t know better, we’d think that he’s working for Robert Mueller and giving the special counsel more evidence of Trump’s guilt. What else could explain his relentless trashing of his own client?

Well, he’s done it again. On Friday Giuliani gave an interview to the Huffington Post wherein he sought to defend Trump from allegations arising out of Cohen’s suspicious financial dealings with a variety of corporations that have obvious interests in Trump’s decision making. Cohen took in millions from the likes of Novartis, Korean Aerospace, AT&T, and even a Russian oligarch connected to Vladimir Putin. All of these funds were funneled through the same account Cohen used to payoff Stormy Daniels.

The AT&T payola holds special significance to Trump considering their still pending merger with TimeWarner (parent of CNN). Trump’s Justice Department is currently suing to block the deal. So any involvement by Trump would violate both legal ethics and his statement that he would not interfere. Giuliani’s latest verbal misfire was launched while attempting to clear Trump of the perception that he was being influenced by Cohen and the money received from AT&T. Giuliani said that:

“Whatever lobbying was done didn’t reach the president. He did drain the swamp … The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted.”

OK then. So Giuliani is now contradicting Trump’s assertion that he wouldn’t get involved. Giuliani is explicitly saying that Trump did step in to deny the merger. In effect, Giuliani is calling the President a liar. And as if to confirm Giuliani’s assessment of Trump as less than honest, Trump himself joined in with a tweet saying:

Of course, the media has reported that repeatedly. But more to the point, Trump is agreeing with Giuliani that the opposition to the merger is proof that Trump wasn’t improperly influenced by Cohen and AT&T. Which would only be true if the premise that Trump had something to do with it holds. Therefore Trump is now calling himself a liar for saying that he had not interfered.

Saturday morning Giuliani was once again walking back something he said that hurt his client in the White House. He told CNN’s Dana Bash that Trump didn’t interfere after all. So the merger is still being contested by Trump’s Justice Department, which Trump proudly boasted about in his tweet. It’s just not because of anything that Trump said, allegedly, despite Giuliani’s previous statement and Trump’s months of bashing the merger on the campaign trail.

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

If this is confusing you, you’re not alone. There has to be a reason that AT&T would pay Cohen $600,000 after Trump’s inauguration. Cohen has no discernible skills or knowledge relating to the communications industry or mergers and acquisitions. What he had to sell was access to the President. AT&T now says that their contract with Cohen was a mistake. Obviously, since the DOJ is still suing them. But the fact that the merger is still being contested in court doesn’t exonerate Trump. It just reveals that Trump hates CNN even more than he loves money. And he doesn’t care who he has to screw over to achieve his goals.

UPDATE: Giuliani is now telling CBS News that he’s standing by his Friday comments that Trump denied the merger. So we’re back to Trump interfered. Is anyone else getting nauseous?

Trump’s Dingbat ‘Friends’ at Fox News Said the ‘Failing’ New York Times Ignored a Story they Actually Broke

Posted by on May 11, 2018 at 2:39 pm. 1 Comments :

On Friday Morning Fox News aired an episode of Donald Trump’s favorite TV show, “Fox and Friends,” that was chock full of the sycophantic silliness that has become the hallmark of the program. They featured segments about a Republican congressional candidate who is predicting a “red” wave in California; an interview with pundi-clowns Diamond & Silk; and a piece blasting Democrats for actually holding CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel accountable for her record.

Fox News Friends

In addition to those hard hitting examples of “real” journalism, the “Curvy Couch” potatoes also discussed a news story with profound foreign policy significance. It concerned the reported capture of five top members of ISIS. This military success was important enough to have warranted a tweet from Trump on Thursday. However, the point that co-host Pete Hegseth was most eager to make was that the “failing” New York Times ignored the story, presumably because it might reflect positively on Trump.

There’s just one problem with that. It was the New York Times who broke the story on Wednesday and was the first news outlet in the U.S. to report it. Consequently, that’s likely where Trump and Fox picked up the news and repackaged it for their audiences. But that didn’t stop Hegseth from flipping through the pages of today’s Times (video below), vainly looking for the story they published two days ago, and whining:

“I looked for the ‘five ISIS leaders captured’ in the failing New York Times, and in the print edition today, I have not seen it yet.”

Try looking in Wednesday’s paper, Einstein. It’s cute that Hegseth uses Trump’s infantile nickname for the Times, proving that the President and the network are joined in a State-TV operation that would make Vladimir Putin jealous. And never mind the fact that the Times is pulling in record profits. The purpose of Trump’s insults is not to convey any accurate information, but to baselessly malign journalists who dare to tell the truth about him. Just like he did last month when he tweeted:

Since then, Trump did add two more lawyers (Rudy Giuliani and Emmett Flood) and parted with both John Down and Ty Cobb. So the Times, as usual was right. But Trump never bothered to correct his misstatement. Nor has Fox News corrected the lie about their ISIS story. This is typical of the way Fox News operates and should be expected to continue. They are as much a disreputable stain on journalism as Trump is on government.

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

Tyrant-Loving NRA/Fox News Hack Warns: ‘It’s Time for Us to Protect the Crown’ (Trump)

Posted by on May 10, 2018 at 4:24 pm. NO Comments :

Members of the Fraternity of Right-Wing Crackpots occasionally make the fatal mistake of saying something that accurately represents what they truly believe. Under ordinary circumstances they try fervently to mask their ugly opinions behind pseudo-populist dogma that appeals to low-information dweebs who like being lied to. But their arrogance and undeserved self-confidence works against their own interests and sometimes results in unauthorized eruptions of candor.

Donald Trump Tyrant Dictator

An excellent example of that occurred when Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor and NRA spokesman, delivered a motivational speech to encourage his followers to vote in November (video below). Motivational speeches from the conservative perspective are generally rants filled with fear mongering, race baiting, and/or falsehoods designed to instill irrational anger. And this one was typical in that respect.

Bongino started on a low note by making a peculiar defense of the Trump administration’s record of failure. ““I think what’s starting to happen here folks,” he began, “is I think Trump and his team are finally getting their sea legs.” Wow. And after only fifteen months in office. This is supposed to be a pep talk? Then Bongino rattles off what he thinks are Trump’s successes: North Korea, Iran, tax cuts, unemployment, eliminating the ObamaCare mandate, cutting Obama regulations, and reversing climate change reforms. All of these are issues on which the American people sharply disagree with the Trump administration. So it’s hard to honestly portray them as successes. But Bongino was just getting started:

“I think the voter out there is finally starting to get excited, and finally starting to realize that if we lose this election, make absolutely no mistake. If we lose the House, this president will in fact, be impeached. There’s no question about it. It’s time for us to protect the crown.”

“Protect the crown”? This little slip exposes the mentality of the far-right in America. They really do think that Trump is a strongman dictator who should allowed to do anything he wants without the annoying interference of Congress, the judiciary, or – god forbid – the people. They prefer to be ruled over by a paternal tyrant, rather than govern themselves the way the Founders intended.

To be fair, Bongino did catch himself and tried to walk back the “crown” remark, but only because he was afraid of what Media Matters might say. Then he shouts defiantly “You know what I mean. Get out and vote.” What he means is that their vote is necessary to prevent Trump from being impeached. Whether or not that’s true, he’s admitting that there is a legal basis for impeachment that might succeed. That’s a great position for him to take – for Democrats. Now the Democrats don’t even need to campaign on impeachment because Republicans like Bongino are reminding the nation that Trump is a criminal who won’t escape accountability by the law if the Congress changes hands.

What’s curious about this catalog of alleged “winning” is a subject that was conspicuously left out: Guns. That’s right, the NRA’s mouthpiece didn’t even mention guns once. The entire tirade was focused on a bevy of other purely political issues. This puts the lie to the claim that the NRA is gun owners advocacy group. They are a nakedly partisan political organization that is doing the bidding of their Republican masters. That is, when they aren’t lobbying for the firearms manufacturers (or Russians) who bankroll their operation. And in order to achieve the goals of the GOP (Greedy One Percent) they are willing to abandon long-held American principles of democracy and follow wannabe dictators lock-step into tyranny.

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

Trump’s Manic Obsession to Undo Obama’s Legacy is Helpfully Exposed By Fox News

Posted by on May 10, 2018 at 1:13 pm. 5 Comments :

The return of three Americans held as prisoners in North Korea can be celebrated by the whole country, regardless of political affiliation. We can all feel a bit of the gratitude that they and their families are feeling today. But we must not pretend that this bit of micro-diplomacy guarantees the success of the broader mission for which Donald Trump has recklessly built up expectations with comments like his tweet on Thursday flaunting an ambitious goal to “denuclearize that entire peninsula.”

Obama Fox News

We must also not forget that Trump’s strutting bravado with regard to North Korea is a symptom of the same mental defect that motivated him to violate the terms of our pact with Iran, and five other nations, to prohibit them from developing nuclear weapons. So even if he strikes a deal with North Korea (which is by no means certain), it’s one step forward, two steps back.

There is, however, an obvious string of commonality that weaves through everything Trump does. In almost every public statement he’s made about Iran, he’s inserted a jab at President Obama over the multinational agreement that Trump has called “one of the worst deals ever negotiated in American diplomatic history.” Likewise, he regularly bashes Obama for not having terminated North Korea’s nuclear weapons program during his term. Note that there are good reasons for not rewarding the Kim regimes that Obama and every other American president have observed.

Trump’s fetish with all things Obama extends to nearly every initiative he’s pursued as president. Even Fox News has noticed this all-consuming psychosis. They recently did a story calling the scuttling of the Iran deal the “latest Trump move to dismantle key Obama policies.” The story noted that:

“Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement marks just the latest development in the president’s ongoing effort to undo predecessor Barack Obama’s legacy — including trying to dismantle Obamacare while making drastic changes to U.S. immigration and military policies. […] Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has repealed or rescinded dozens of regulations, executive orders and international agreements implemented by the Obama administration over the eight years of his presidency. That effort began three days after Trump was inaugurated.”

Indeed. Trump’s sole motivation appears to be to unravel everything that Obama successfully implemented. Although it’s a bit surreal to see Fox News articulate it so explicitly. Trump’s gnawing jealousy has him on a single-minded path of destruction. It’s why he installed cabinet heads whose sole objectives are to weaken, and eventually eliminate, the departments they run. It’s a fact that is so transparent that even Fox News is comfortable reporting it. They posted a tweet listing the deliberate damage that Trump is doing to the Obama legacy:

Ironically, the items in that list are all examples of harm that Trump is doing, not just to Obama’s legacy, but to America. Polls show that most voters are in favor of the Democratic/liberal position on every single one of the those issues. Trump is working furiously against the interests of the people. So Fox News is posting what amounts to a campaign ad for voting Democratic in 2018. And while Fox is also continuing their regular broadcasts of repulsive opinions by heinous pundits, we might just pause for a moment to thank them for this inadvertent gift. But don’t expect to get any more between now and November.

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

Trump Threatens to ‘Take Away Credentials’ of Media that Doesn’t Slobber Him with Praise

Posted by on May 9, 2018 at 11:21 am. 4 Comments :

Reporters Without Borders publishes an annual World Press Freedom Index. The most recent study reported that the United States fell to 45th place, a new low. Much of that decline was attributed explicitly to Donald Trump, whose open hostility to the media has been a core component of his presidency.

Donald Trump

Continuing to push forward with his aggressively anti-First Amendment agenda, Trump took to his official presidential policy platform – Twitter – and posted a comment that is a further demonstration of just how extreme his hatred of the free press is. This tweet should frighten all Americans who value constitutional principles and the indispensable role the press plays in democracy:

There is so much wrong with that tweet that it’s hard to know where to begin. First of all, the economy has been expanding for nearly ten years, and that expansion began near the beginning of President Obama’s first term. Contrary to Trump’s claim, for which he provides no factual support, the economy has largely stalled as of late. The Dow Jones is down year-to-date. And Trump has been undeservedly taking credit for an economy whose performance has trailed that of Obama’s.

Secondly, Trump is actually admitting that, in his view, any media that is negative is therefore fake. It isn’t surprising to learn that he feels that way, but it’s a little surprising that he says so publicly.

Third, Trump’s reference to network news being ninety-one percent negative about him was likely taken from Sean Hannity’s program last night. Hannity reported that statistic based on a dubious study by the ultra-rightist media watchdogs at NewsBusters. And he wrapped the biased data in the same package as Trump, fretting about his negative coverage despite the utopia he’s supposedly presiding over. This is another example of Hannity serving as a close advisor to this fumbling president (video below):

Hannity: “President Trump’s poll numbers, they’re rising. This despite a Newsbusters study showed that newtwork news broadcasts in this country featured negative stories about the President 90% of the time. Wow. And I told you journalism is dead.”

Notice the similarities between Hannity’s commentary and Trump’s tweet. But the most troubling part of Trump’s tweet is his threat to revoke press credentials for any media that fails to exalt the Dear Leader. Trump has long pined for a submissive press corps that only celebrates his every word and deed. This isn’t the first (or twentieth) time that Trump has attempted to punish the press by banishing them from the White House or worse, challenge their licenses. Last October he explicitly tweeted that threat saying:

The fact that Trump repeatedly takes this censorious position is evidence that it isn’t just an offhand remark that he doesn’t mean literally. He is deadly serious about his intention to gag any media that dares to criticize him. And in advance of that he has been avoiding any independent media for most of the last year. He’s only held one solo news conference (February 2017, just after the inauguration) during his entire presidency. And he hasn’t given an interview to a non-friendly (i.e. Fox News) outlet in the past year. What’s he afraid of?

The World Press Freedom study noticed these disturbing trends for American journalism. They addressed them specifically in their report as reasons for downgrading the U.S. position:

“In 2017, the 45th President of the United States helped sink the country to 45th place by labeling the press an ‘enemy of the American people’ in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, attempts to block White House access to multiple media outlets, routine use of the term ‘fake news’ in retaliation for critical reporting, and calling for media outlets’ broadcasting licenses to be revoked.”

The American people need to be alert with regard to the threat that Trump represents to the freedom of the press and the sustainability of democracy. These are not idle threats made as political rhetoric. They are dangerous challenges made by a wannabe dictator who truly believes he has the right to muzzle the media and mislead the people. We the people cannot let that happen.

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

Serial Sexual Predator Bill O’Reilly Offers to Protect Sarah Huckabee Sanders From the Media

Posted by on May 8, 2018 at 5:53 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has been called a lot of things. Most notable (and on target) is a lying propagandist for a criminal chief executive. But she has never been criticized for being a wallflower who can’t defend herself under fire. Especially when the fire is coming from the Washington press corps who she encounters on a near daily basis.

Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Enter Bill O’Reilly: The disgraced has-been who struggles to get attention for his lame blog now that he has been banished from his Fox News perch. O’Reilly has become a pathetic wretch who thinks he can still corral an audience after the disclosures of numerous payoffs to women accusing him of sexual harassment and abuse. At least New York’s Attorney General had the decency to resign.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with O’Reilly at a party for Richard Grenell, Trump’s new ambassador to Germany (and a former Fox News contributor). They witnessed a discussion that O’Reilly had with Sanders that tells you something about both of them. According the Reporter O’Reilly said that he “feels for” Sanders, who he said is “not able to fight back when attacked by beat reporters, unlike her boss, President Donald Trump.” O’Reilly posted their exchange on his website:

“I said, ‘Ms. Sanders, with all due respect, if you ever need me to stand next to you in those press briefings, I will volunteer to do that. And, if somebody gets out of line, I will tell them exactly what I think of their behavior,’ “

Horrors! O’Reilly’s threatening to tell some unsuspecting reporters what he thinks of them (like they care). And where in that self-serving slobber was any hint of “due respect” for Sanders? O’Reilly is implying that lady-folk Sanders can’t do her job. And although she sees her job as lying to the American people everyday, she’s doing that pretty well. She obviously doesn’t need the “loofah man” to rescue the poor defenseless female from the mob of ravaging journalists. Let’s face it, the only thing O’Reilly wants to do is get some airtime on real TV, as opposed to the little-watched videos he makes in his Long Island basement. He went on to babble:

“I told her that she is doing a great job, in the sense that it’s not a partisan play. She’s representing her country in very difficult circumstances, extremely difficult, and she’s a patriot — you know, she’s taken enormous amount of abuse, enormous.”

In O’Reilly’s cartoon brain what Sanders does isn’t partisan? That’s a symptom of acute grey matter rot. And he attempts to portray the press secretary as being on a par with the military. Come on, what’s so difficult about answering questions from reporters? And if anything makes this more difficult than usual, it’s the dishonesty and ignorance of the president she works for.

The Reporter’s article says that Sanders laughed when O’Reilly made this suggestion. That’s a fairly appropriate response. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough to shame O’Reilly for belittling the woman whose job it is to speak for the President. O’Reilly’s misogyny is evident in his presumption that he would be necessary or helpful as a protector for Sanders. If anything, he would probably seek to take advantage of her to advance his own interests. Because that’s what narcissistic misogynists like O’Reilly (and his pal Donald Trump) do.

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

Proof That Fox News Has Been Suppressing the Stormy Daniels Story to Protect Trump

Posted by on May 8, 2018 at 2:11 pm. 1 Comments :

For the past several weeks the nation has been in the peculiar position of watching a porn star dominate much of the news concerning the American president. Stormy Daniels, and her telegenic attorney Michael Avenatti, have succeeded in holding Donald Trump’s feet to the fire and exposing his brazen dishonesty and lack of morals. The story has kept the American people enrapt due to its unique blend of political intrigue and salacious melodrama.

Fox News, Stormy Daniels

Many legal experts have said that Trump has more to fear from this litigation than from the investigations into his collusion with Russia. That’s partly due to the fact that it is not a federal matter over which Trump could have some influence. He would also find it more difficult to evade having to give depositions and testimony. And now with his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, gallivanting across America’s TV screens and making everything worse with his ignorant ravings, Trump is in a decidedly more precarious position than he was in when this began.

There is, however, one group of the populace that is probably not especially concerned about the Stormy affair. Fox News viewers simply don’t care about any unethical or criminal thing that Trump does. They will forgive him for whatever the “deep state,” “hate-Trump” media cooks up. But there’s another reason they won’t be troubled by Trump’s abhorrent behavior. They don’t really know much, if anything, about it.

Vox Media did an analysis of the coverage of Stormy Daniels and discovered that Fox News provided the bare minimum of airtime to the story. That’s surprising considering that Fox ordinarily would be all over a sex scandal involving a politician. Well, if the politician were a Democrat. But in this case their avoidance of the story is nothing less than deliberate suppression. It is why Fox News is so often characterized as State-Run TV. What Vox found was that Fox News covered stories mentioning Stormy, Cohen, or Giuliani a fraction of the amount as their peers in cable news. The charts reveal the extent to which Fox sought to smother this story.

In addition to the self-censorship employed by Fox, it is also notable that on those rare occasions when they did report on these topics, the spin was always in Trump’s favor. They would portray Stormy as a disreputable figure who can’t be trusted. And, conversely, Trump was always an innocent victim who did nothing wrong and was being subjected to a smear campaign. Never mind that both Trump and Giuliani were the people most responsible for disclosures that point to Trump’s guilt.

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

At the end of the day, the glassy-eyed disciple of Fox News remain blissfully ignorant of the facts surrounding these events. And to the degree that they are aware of some of the facts, they believe that they were manipulated by the evil media cabal that controls the planet. Trump, they are convinced, has been miscast by his enemies as a lying pervert who scoffs at the law. The only problem with that is that he is a lying pervert who scoffs at the law, and his tunnel-blind followers refuse to see it. And with the help of Fox News, they will continue to see only very little of the truth that is so offensive to them.

When Will Donald Trump Resign Over His Multiple Allegations of Sexual Harassment and Assault?

Posted by on May 7, 2018 at 8:22 pm. 3 Comments :

The breaking news on Monday evening about New York’s Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, has shaken the state and the nation. He was seen as a devoted advocate of women’s rights who vigorously prosecuted men who had abused women in their homes or in the workplace. He even authored a bill that toughened laws relating to violence against women. So the news that he has been accused of perpetrating such violence himself came as a shock.

Donald Trump

It didn’t take but a couple of hours after the story hit the street for Schneiderman to issue a notice that he is resigning from his office. That’s the right thing to do under these troubling circumstances. And he isn’t the only one who has had to skulk away in disgrace following allegations of sexual misconduct. Not by a long shot. There have been dozens of men driven from their jobs for the same reasons. Here’s a short list that covers men from business, media, politics, and entertainment:

  • Harvey Weinstein
  • Kevin Spacey
  • Mark Halperin
  • Roger Ailes
  • Bill O’Reilly
  • Charlie Rose
  • Matt Lauer
  • Al Franken
  • Blake Farenthold
  • Trent Franks
  • Patrick Meehan

There is, however, a conspicuously missing name from this list. Someone who has been accused of horrendous acts by at least sixteen women. And he holds a powerful position in government despite his perverse and violent behavior. Can you guess who that is? (I knew you could).

Six months ago News Corpse published an article that asked “What About Donald Trump?” It noted that at that time there were numerous men who had been made to pay for their disgusting behavior:

“Trump’s abusive acts have been well known for some time. He even admitted to criminal sexual assault in the video from Access Hollywood. But he was elected president anyway by so-called “family values” voters who dismissed his contemptible conduct in favor of rank party politics. And he has the full support of Fox News, a network whose corporate culture virtually encourages sexual harassment.” […]

“Allowing Trump to remain in the White House sends a terrible message to all Americans, particularly women and girls. If Trump isn’t impeached for obstruction of justice, collusion with Russia, financial corruption, undermining the free press, or being a pathological liar and malignant narcissist, then his sexual depravity and criminality should be more than reason enough.”

The only thing that’s changed since then is that more men have been exposed and held to account. But Donald Trump is still entrenched in the White House despite being among the worst offenders. Schneiderman showed today that there is only one correct course of action for these weasels. And Trump should pay attention. It’s a stain on our nation that he continues to occupy the presidency despite his criminally and perverse conduct. And while it may take time, the American people will hold him to account. The video below is a powerful statement by some of Trump’s accusers, and should be seen by as many people as possible.

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

Leave Melania Alone! Cyberbullying is as Good as Any Project, Considering Her Vile Husband

Posted by on May 7, 2018 at 3:39 pm. 6 Comments :

On Monday afternoon Melania Trump finally announced an official project that will define her role as First Lady. And it only took her fifteen months. The problem of cyberbullying is very real and many children (and adults) have suffered from it’s worst effects. Children’s lives have been shattered and left scarred. Young adults have have actually resorted to suicide from the pressure put on them by peers. It’s not a joke.

Melania Trump

Melania was immediately mocked for her choice of a pet project while serving in the White House. The irony of this particular First Lady taking on the sort of abuse that is often doled out on social media is too rich to ignore. After all, if there were a Cyberbully Olympics Donald Trump would surely win the Gold Medal. He has insulted and assaulted everyone from political opponents to celebrities to even his own cabinet and staff. He seems to delight in the use of infantile name-calling and gets perverse pleasure from throwing around ad hominem insults. That’s quite contrary to the sentiment expressed by Melania at today’s announcement:

So the selection of this issue is a curious one. Is Melania sending a message to her husband to shame him and get him to change his loathsome ways? Are the Trump’s trying to muddy the waters and confuse people as to who the highest profile cyberbully in America is? Or are they actually so dense that they don’e see the glaring paradox they’ve unleashed? Who knows?

However, it may be a little unfair to ridicule Melania for this choice. And it becomes apparent that none of her choices were very good when you take into consideration the abhorrent cretin she’s married to. What was she supposed to do? A brief history of the projects taken on by her predecessors reveals the problem:

Lady Bird Johnson launched a beautification campaign to inspire communities to clean up neighborhoods and highways. But this wouldn’t be any better for Melania than cyberbullying. The President vigorously opposes efforts to to clean up our environment, and his infrastructure proposals have all fallen by the wayside – except for his idiotic border wall.

Pat Nixon promoted civic engagement and volunteerism. But Trump has never done a thing in his life that wasn’t for the benefit of himself and his bank account. Nor has he been a supporter of organizations that perform social welfare activities and rely on volunteers for help. There isn’t even a record of him ever having given blood to the Red Cross.

Betty Ford was well known for helping reduce the stigma of alcoholism. Donald Trump is known to be a teetotaler who was influenced by the death of his older brother to never touch liquor. But even with that potentially heart-tugging backstory, when has he ever spoken publicly about helping people who suffer from alcoholism? His most recent remarks on the subject were to insult via Twitter a “drunk/drugged up loser” in a critical news story.

Rosalynn Carter worked on a council on mental health. The only mentions of mental health by this President have been to divert attention away from the effects of easy access to guns.

Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign was directed at reducing drug abuse. And once again, this is an issue that Trump pays only lip service to. Despite his frequent references to the opioid crisis, he has done nothing to help resolve the problem.

Hillary Clinton worked tirelessly to develop a better health care system. This hardly needs elaboration. Trump has spent much of his first year in office deliberately sabotaging health care for millions of Americans. He’s proven to be a callous, heartless opponent of average Americans who need access to quality, affordable care.

Laura Bush launched a literacy program called “Ready to Read, Ready to Learn,” in an effort to encourage children to enjoy literature. But Trump is a notorious non-reader. Not only doesn’t he read books, he won’t read his national security briefings or other information critical to performing his duties. He can’t even take care to spell correctly or use the proper punctuation or letter case.

Michelle Obama famously worked to fight childhood obesity and to promote health and diet. OK, this is just too easy. Our rotund President is hardly an example of good health. He is overweight and addicted to junk food and Diet Pepsi. And if that weren’t bad enough, his personal health plan is to make his doctors lie about the results of his physicals.

With Donald Trump’s past, that is rife with self-interest, it’s impossible to find anything that might suggest some measure of human charity. So what was Melania supposed to do. Any of the other projects that typically consume the time and efforts of Fist Ladies would bring just as much ridicule as cyberbullying due to the President’s total lack of concern for his fellow citizens. So it’s just as well that she picks one and proceeds with the hope that, if she accomplishes something, no one will notice how absurd it is to be associated with that nasty orange creature who keeps trying to grab her hand.

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

Forgetful Fox News Hack Whines That SNL is Anti-Trump Because of Stormy Daniels’ Bit

Posted by on May 6, 2018 at 6:24 pm. 1 Comments :

It goes without saying that Fox News will leap to the most extreme conclusions in order to delegitimize any entity or person they regard as less than adoring of Donald Trump. Their automatic bias is dialed up to eleven at all times, as is their phony outrage.

Fox News Stormy Daniels

However, an example of this from Sunday’s episode of Fox’s MediaBuzz jumps off the charts as host Howard Kurtz complains about Saturday Night Live recruiting Stormy Daniels to play herself in the cold opening of the program. Kurtz and his guest, Kat Timpf, were both very unhappy that SNL would demonstrate such obvious political partisanship. Here is their exchange (video below):

Kurtz: Does SNL putting on Stormy Daniels herself kind of remove any last pretense that this program is virulently anti-Trump and it’s just about comedy?
Timpf: Yeah, absolutely. It’s very, very anti-Trump. And it’s not as funny because of it. Because we already know where all the jokes are gonna be going. We don’t watch the sketch and see Alec Baldwin and say, “Oh, I wonder what the punchline is gonna be here. The punchline is gonna be “Oh, the President’s an idiot. The President’s a liar.” And the bottom line is the people who are watching it and enjoy it, they are gonna hate President Trump no matter what. But the people who support him, they don’t care about Stormy Daniels. They don’t care about any of this. So it’s not like they’re changing any minds with any of these sketches.
Kurtz: Right. It’s not like Alec Baldwin hasn’t made clear that as a person he detests President Trump.
Timpf: You can tell by the way he acts.
Kurtz: I wouldn’t have any problem with a Stormy Daniels actrress, but Stormy Daniels herself? Really?
Timpf: I’ve had enough Stormy Daniels.
Kurtz: I think our viewers might agree with you.

If knowing what people with obvious agendas are going to say in advance negates their positions, then no one ever needs to watch anything on Fox News. We already know what the punchlines are and they aren’t the least bit funny. Although it’s interesting that Kurtz admits that his audience is a single-minded borg community who all think alike.

However, what really exposes Kurtz and his colleagues at Fox News as partisan propagandists is his deliberate blocking out any part of reality that contradicts his preconceived notions. Here’s why: He’s furious at SNL for casting Stormy, and insists that having done so is proof that the show is anti-Trump. So what did it mean in November of 2015 when Donald Trump was the host of the program for the whole hour and a half? Wasn’t that proof that SNL is hopelessly biased to the right and pro-Trump (despite the universally bad reviews)?

How Kurtz could have forgotten this infamous episode that created a huge stir in the press at the time is unfathomable. But he and his guest somehow managed to latch onto a couple of minutes in this weekend’s program and declare it evidence of a rampant liberal bias, while pretending that Trump’s hosting gig never existed. And Kurtz is the top media correspondent on Fox News. He should – and probably does – know better.

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