Month: June 2018

Bill Maher Calls Republicans the Alex Jones Party – And Hannity Promptly Proves It

Posted by on June 2, 2018 at 11:23 am. 1 Comments :

The trends have been taking shape for several years. The Republican Party began devolving into a conspiracy theory factory with crackpots like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck setting the tone for its political messaging. They inspired GOP loons like Louis Gohmert and Michele Bachmann to contribute to the madness that has become what is now their mainstream ideology.

Sean Hannity Fox News

Stories that used to reside exclusively on the outer fringes of the wingnut blogosphere are now routinely elevated to the bastions of right wing media, including its headquarters, Fox News. Much of the responsibility for this lies with America’s Conspiracy-Theorist-in-Chief, Donald Trump. He has not only disseminated the ludicrous inventions of the right’s most psychotic losers, he runs his own blather lab to manufacture fresh drivel on a daily basis.

On Friday Bill Maher delivered a monologue that nicely presented the decline of the GOP’s collective mental failure (video below). He noted that “conspiracy theorists used to be called ‘crazy,’ now they’re called ‘Senator.'” He continued:

“It used to be the unwritten rule of both parties that you can’t just make sh*t up. The old ‘you’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts’ thing. But that was until Republicans discovered that yes, yes you can just make sh*t up. You can have your own facts. In fact we just pulled a fresh batch out of the oven. And by the ‘oven’ I mean our ass.

“You know, I never liked Rush Limbaugh, but I would take a return to 90’s era dittoheads any day, because it turned out that Rush was really just a gateway drug to which they eventually built up a tolerance and then needed something stronger. That was Glenn Beck. Which led to Alex Jones. And now, Republicans, you’re the Alex Jones Party. There is literally nothing to stupid and conspiratorial that you will not swallow.”

If you think that Maher was just exaggerating for comic effect, you haven’t been watching enough of Sean Hannity. Because, also on Friday, Hannity announced that he had some “Great news for me tonight.” The news came from Hannity’s pal, Jerome Corsi, who also happens to be the Washington D.C. Bureau chief for Alex Jones’ Infowars. That’s right. The circle is complete. Corsi, who was the fruitcake responsible for the Swiftboat lies during John Kerry’s presidential campaign, told Hannity that he is “the next target of the Deep State.” Imagine Hannity’s surprise:

“Wow, isn’t it so great to know that these corrupt officials with their backs against the wall are desperate, desperate people do desperate things. The people that have the most powerful tools of intelligence are now going after me, okay? Really? […] I promise you this one thing: I’m never stopping, ever.”

Well, that’s comforting. The Energizer Bunny of Fox News will keep going and going. No matter what the “Deep State” does to bring him and his BFF Donald Trump down. Never mind that neither Hannity or Corsi identified any alleged deep-staters who were plotting against him, or how the plotters would execute their fiendish plans. Would they send commandos to storm his basement studio on Long Island? Or maybe poison his vape juice? Whatever. It’s enough to merely make the allegation that this mysterious (i.e. fake) Deep State cabal is holed up somewhere cooking up schemes to exterminate the fearsome Sean Hannity.

Apparently the Deep State has nothing better to do than threaten delusional, paranoid TV pundits. You might think that would distract them from their primary mission to destroy Trump and replace him with their Hillary Clinton lizard clone. But you underestimate the deepness of this secret society of Trump haters. They are everywhere, embedded in the very fabric of American life. They could be your boss, or your dry cleaner, or your daughter’s math teacher. And if you think that’s scary, whatever you do, don’t look in the mirror.

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

Trump and Fox News Whine About the Cost of Mueller Probe – But Here’s Why it’s a Bargain

Posted by on June 1, 2018 at 12:01 pm. 5 Comments :

It’s just another typical Friday morning in America where the President of the United States is venting his pent up rage on Twitter. The spectacle of Donald Trump’s embarrassing and dishonest tweetstorming has become as routine as the sunrise. And this morning’s episode of “As the Trump Tweets” was every bit as confounding as all the episodes that preceded it.

Donald Trump

Among the topics that riled up the Tweeter-in-Chief was how much money was being spent on the special counsel investigation into his collusion with Russia and obstruction of justice. Trump is aghast that the reported price tag so far has reached nearly $17 million dollars. Of course he surely didn’t know know that until he saw it during his “Executive Time” watching Fox News. They featured a segment on this with their chief intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge. She replied to a question as to whether there were “Any new details about the skyrocketing costs of the Russia investigation?” She said (video below):

“Well, we’ve got the report itself. And according to that report the taxpayer funded special counsel Russia probe spent nearly $17 million, as you say, since they opened, or Robert Mueller took over the investigation last year. […] according to the Justice Department report about $10 million has been spent between October and March. That includes $4.5 million spent by Mueller’s team and another $5.5 million spent by the Justice Department on other expenditures that are attributable to the investigation.”

Herridge then parroted Trump’s tweet that said precisely what she just finished saying, but added his customary partisan bullpucky that there was “No Collusion, except by the Democrats.”

However, neither Trump nor Fox News provided any context for the this expense report other than falsely portraying it as “skyrocketing.” The truth is that $17 million dollars is not especially high for this sort of legal inquiry. The Republican investigation of the Clintons over Whitewater cost more than $80 million (and found no evidence of wrongdoing). The total costs of the GOP-run Benghazi hearings were more than $20 million (also no wrongdoing. The investigation into Iran-Contra cost about $47 million. The cost of sixty votes attempting to repeal ObamaCare was at least $87 million. And Trump’s visits to his resort at Mar-A-Lago cost $67 million.

Put another way, the federal budget is currently about $4.1 trillion. Which means that $17 million is only about 0.0004% of the budget. It would be like someone making $50,000 a year and spending 20 cents. And it has already produced dozens of indictments and five guilty pleas. That seems like a pretty cost efficient expenditure for rooting out the traitorous behavior of a president and his cronies, and their efforts to obstruct justice. Don’t ya think?

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