Month: February 2019

Fox News Primetime Shows are So Offensive that Fox is Afraid to Sell them to Advertisers

Posted by on February 11, 2019 at 2:05 pm. 2 Comments :

There’s been a pretty steady stream of bad news lately for Fox News. Most prominent is the success of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, along with many of her colleagues. She has beaten her Fox competition, Sean Hannity, nearly every night since early November, after the midterm election. Fox is also hurting from the exodus of advertisers due to the racist commentaries of their featured hosts. And they can’t be happy about Donald Trump coming to their aid, with all the baggage he brings along.

Donald Trump Fox News

On top of that, Fox is embarrassing itself with ludicrous lies, flagrant Trump sycophancy, and hosts who brag that they have nauseating personal hygiene practices. And in the midst of these self-made messes, Fox has to pitch their network to advertisers in the upcoming “upfront” sales season when networks make their cases to the advertising community for the new year. Given their ratings failures and sinking reputation, Fox is going to have a hard time making their network seem appealing. According to Variety:

“Whether or not they watch Fox News Channel regularly, a lot of people talk about its primetime hosts: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson. Now executives at the network hope to spark new conversation about its news anchors, like Martha MacCallum, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace.” […]

“Fox News sparks the new initiative at a time when its opinion programs have come under scrutiny from advertisers. Some sponsors have pulled their advertising from Tucker Carlson’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” or Laura Ingraham’s “The Ingraham Angle” after remarks made by the hosts in 2018 and amid subsequent protest from advocacy organizations.”

In other words, Fox is trying to downplay the programs hosted by their biggest stars during primetime, the most watched daypart. This is an unprecedented display of cowardice for a television network. It would be like CBS trying to downplay “The Big Bang Theory” and “CSI” in favor of some daytime game shows. Variety quotes a Fox advertising executive as saying that they want to press “against the notion that the network is only for conservatives.” It’s way too late for them to sell that nonsense. Fox doesn’t even use the “fair and balanced” slogan anymore. They ditched it for “Real News,” an obvious suck-up to Trump.

Everyone knows that Fox News is now just a surrogate for the White House. They have become the closest thing to State TV that America has ever known. And now the ad sales people think that advertisers can be fooled into believing that Fox is “transcending its own genre and becoming popular culture, thanks in part to the Trump presidency.”

But there are two problems with that theory. First, Trump is decidedly unpopular. He has record low approval ratings hovering in the upper thirties on most polls (despite Trump’s lame effort to convince people that he’s universally beloved). And secondly, by positioning the network as popular culture, Fox is admitting that they are not news.

Of course, anyone who has been paying attention already knows that Fox hasn’t been a legitimate news network in years, if ever. They have few, if any, reputable journalists. They have never won a journalism award from the Pulitzers, the Emmys, or any other industry association. Their program hosts are more like cheerleaders for Trump, who actually appear on stage with him at his rallies.

The problem for Fox is that advertisers are not the sort of ignoramuses who watch Fox. They deal with multimillion dollar budgets and they know what they’re buying. By pretending that Fox isn’t the equivalent of Trump TV, their ad sales people will only be insulting the intelligence of the media buyers. And if Fox thinks that’s going to pump up sales, they’re as stupid as their audience – and their President.

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

Trump Freaks Out Over Fake Fox News Report that 42 Million Latin Americans are Invading the U.S.

Posted by on February 10, 2019 at 10:23 am. 2 Comments :

The prospects of Donald Trump getting the funding he craves for his idiotic vanity wall along the southern border are declining with each new day. Even he recognized in a whimpering tweet that the bipartisan congressional Conference Committee hashing out a compromise bill are leaning toward a skimpy sum that couldn’t be used for any actual wall building.

Fox News, Immigration

So naturally Trump is lashing out in the irrational and childish manner for which he is well known. His purpose, of course, isn’t to inspire a constructive dialogue, but to incite fear, hatred, and division. And he employs his usual bag of tricks to achieve those ends, mainly consisting of whining and lying. On Sunday morning he tweeted that:

It goes without saying that Trump’s assessment of the situation is entirely devoid of facts. What he describes as a looming disaster is actually just a set of hypotheticals that he has taken completely out of context. The Gallup poll he’s citing is much more nuanced than in his simplistic retelling. And, as usual, he didn’t provide a link to it for fear that people would be able to see the truth for themselves.

The poll asked a broadly hypothetical question of residents in Latin American countries about whether they would like to immigrate and, if so, what country would be their preferred destination. The survey results said that twenty-seven percent would like to immigrate, and that thirty-five percent of those would choose to go to the United States.

The only thing this tells us is that there is significant dissatisfaction with life in many of the Latin American countries. Who didn’t already know that? Much of the region is burdened with poverty, violence, and corrupt governments. Also, who is surprised that the U.S. would be a popular destination? Would Trump prefer it if our country was regarded as slime hole that no one wanted to move to? Although it does seem like that’s what he’s trying to turn it into.

Trump’s ignorance is further demonstrated by his omission of other relevant data on international migration. In another recent Gallup poll it was found that an even larger percentage of Europeans (41%) also say they would like to move to another country. Similarly, the top migrant destination worldwide is the U.S., with 158 million people – more than three times the number from Latin America alone – expressing an interest in moving here. For some reason, Trump didn’t bother to mention the potential invasion of America by Europeans. I guess that isn’t an issue for him and his white-wing Republican Nationalist Party.

It’s also notable that Trump didn’t come to rant about this after doing some deep research on his own or consulting his “experts” in the State Department. As usual, he was simply live-tweeting what he had just watched on Fox News. His favorite morning program, Fox and Friends, did a segment wherein the “Curvy Couch” potatoes featured this distorted take on the Gallup poll. And shortly thereafter Trump’s tweet appeared.

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

This is more proof that Fox News constitutes the “brain trust” of his administration. And, as a result, the nation is mired in the ignorance and bigotry that fills Fox’s programming 24/7. It’s a dangerous recipe that combines the ultra-rightist media with government power to poison the minds of the Deplorables who are most vulnerable to such lies and propaganda. And this Cult of Trump, with its State TV Ministry of Information, will continue to do harm until Trump and company are migrated to where they belong: Federal prison.

Donald Trump Lamely Tries to Rescue ‘Failing’ Sean Hannity’s Arsekissing Hour on Fox News

Posted by on February 9, 2019 at 12:36 pm. NO Comments :

Donald Trump would not be president today were it not for the donation of millions of dollars of free airtime to his candidacy by Fox News. The broadcast of his hate-filled cult rallies in their entirety for the months preceding the election allowed Trump to disseminate his message of divisiveness and bigotry to an audience he would never have been able to reach otherwise.

Donald Trump Sean Hannity

Since the election Fox News has continued to serve Trump as his own personal propaganda outlet with hosts and guests who furiously defend everything he says and does, while fiercely attacking his critics. And he continues to get preferential treatment with regard to airtime and interviews. He has done more than forty interviews as president with Fox News, but zero with CNN and MSNBC. And he has another Fox interview next Monday with Laura Ingraham.

However, Trump’s biggest booster on Fox News is indisputably Sean Hannity, who has even appeared on stage at his rallies in violation of Fox News “standards,” such as they are. Hannity devotes most of his program to his sycophantic admiration for Trump and deranged conspiracy theories about everyone from Hillary Clinton to special counsel Robert Mueller. Last summer Hannity let two of Trump’s lawyers guest host his three hour radio show. And, of course, Trump has granted him more interviews than any other television personality.

None of that, however, has prevented Hannity’s show from declining in the ratings. What used to be the number program on cable news now loses on an almost nightly basis to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Hannity’s total ratings crashed nineteen percent since the midterms in November. His fall in the coveted, advertiser-friendly 25-54 year old demographic was a massive thirty percent. He is also suffering from an exodus af advertisers along with his colleagues Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham due to their offensive and racist rhetoric.

Consequently, Trump is coming to the rescue of his friend and “shadow” chief-of-staff. On Saturday morning Trump retweeted three of Hannity’s tweets that were typically flattering to the President. The first was an article from Hannity’s website about remarks by the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee concerning his opinion that no evidence of Trump’s collusion with Russia has been found. That opinion was refuted by the ranking Democrat on the committee, but Trump wasn’t interested in that. Nor was he interested in the mountains of evidence found by the special counsel, other than to whine incessantly that it’s a hoax.

The second retweet was an article on Hannity’s website asserting that Ford was investing a billion dollars in two Chicago-area factories, and giving Trump credit for it. But as with every other announcement of this kind, it was either something that had been planned long before Trump was president, something that was merely a proposal with no guarantee, or something that would never actually come to pass. And none of that has ever stopped Trump from taking credit anyway.

The third retweet was Hannity’s posting of an article on TheHill by right-wing shill and Trump flunky, John Solomon. The article posited a ludicrous conspiracy theory that Rep. Adam Schiff, the new Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, had met secretly last year with GPS Fusion founder Glenn Simpson, whose company hired the author of the Steele Dossier. No such meeting ever took place, and the article provided no evidence of it. Nevertheless, Hannity posted it and Trump retweeted that posting.

Trump often live-tweets what he’s watching on Fox News. And by the frequency of it, he seems to do nothing else all day long. But he rarely posts multiple tweets in succession promoting a single program. Doing so now, at a time when Hannity’s show is sinking like a rock, seems like Trump is throwing a life preserver to his drowning pal. But this can’t possibly help. If Trump’s followers on Twitter aren’t already watching Hannity, they aren’t ever going to start now. And his retweets certainly aren’t going to slow the rapid growth of Maddow’s program.

The problem with Hannity’s show isn’t that there aren’t enough Trump supporters watching it. It’s that Hannity is a repugnant jerkwad whose asskissing is so tedious that even conservatives and Republicans are sickened by it. The problem is that Hannity offers the same noxious blend of lies and insults every night, aimed at the same “villains” he’s been attacking for years. His program is both annoyingly repetitive and presented by an angry mouth-breather who seems less coherent than the schizophrenic on the street corner shouting at passing cars. That has never been a winning formula for television viewing.

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

Trump Wallows in Wacky Conspiracy Theories About Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff

Posted by on February 8, 2019 at 2:37 pm. 1 Comments :

In another Twitter outburst that has become commonplace with our Tweeter-in-Chief, Donald Trump has taken off on a wildly deranged line of attack aimed at Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He’s doing everything he can to disparage and discredit him, because those are the only tools he has left. It isn’t surprising that Trump would seek to smear Schiff considering that he has the authority to uncover a broad array of the crimes that Trump would prefer remain hidden.

Donald Trump

Ever since the November election when Democrats became the majority party in the House of Representatives, Trump has exhibited an increasingly fearful demeanor. During the previous Congress, Trump had the luxury of having a Republican chairing this committee, Devin Nunes, who was a reliable accomplice in his obstruction of justice. Now, for the first time, Trump is facing an honest investigatory environment and real accountability. As a result, he has resorted to infantile name calling (i.e. Adam Schitt) and the dissemination of lies and ludicrous conspiracy theories.

In the Friday morning tweetstorm, Trump went after Schiff over a silly article written by John Solomon for TheHill. Solomon is a notoriously right-wing partisan who frequently disgorges his nonsense on Fox News. What he stumbled on as the basis for this article was the fact that Schiff attended a security conference in Aspen and happened to bump into Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Christopher Steele of the “Steele Dossier” fame. So Trump tweeted this:

The first thing that Trump got wrong here is that Schiff and Simpson did not “spend time together.” Even Solomon’s article notes that the encounter was “brief and social in nature.” In other words, they ran into each other briefly at an event with several hundred other attendees, and had no substantive discussion. Of course, that didn’t stop Solomon, and subsequently Trump, from implying that something more nefarious had occurred. But there was no evidence to support that other than conjecture and insinuation.

The second problem with Trump’s tweet is his assertion that the dossier had been discredited. To the contrary, nothing in the dossier has ever been proved to be false. However, much of it has been verified as true. So Trump’s blathering is just more of the sort of sketchy behavior engaged in by people who know they are guilty. And if he thinks that such assaults are going to dissuade Schiff or his congressional colleagues from pursuing the truth, then Trump is even dumber than we previously thought.

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

Here We Go Again: Donald Trump Keeps Thanking a Biased Pollster for Fake Survey Results

Posted by on February 8, 2019 at 1:25 pm. 1 Comments :

One of the surest signs of mental illness is when someone incoherently repeats nonsense with no comprehensible purpose other than to make noise. Donald Trump has exhibited this behavior for months with his frequently repeated falsehoods about everything from his precious vanity wall to his all-consuming fear of accountability for the criminal activity being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Donald Trump

In addition to these incessant ramblings, Trump has also been celebrating polling results on Twitter by the notoriously right-wing shills at Rasmussen Reports. And on Friday morning he did so once again with exactly the same commentary as his previous tweets on the subject. And once again, Trump’s satisfaction with the poll is misplaced considering it shows him with a forty-one percent “Strongly Disapprove” rating, and only thirty-eight percent “Strongly Approve.” Nevertheless, Trump tweeted out this:

And if that looks familiar it’s because last month he tweeted out this:

And if that looks familiar it’s because before that he tweeted out this:

And if those look familiar it’s because this seems to be a common obsession with him. To brag about a rating that only puts you at even illustrates just how desperate Trump is for anything upbeat he can promote to mitigate the tsunami of bleakness that surrounds him. But to rest his gloating on a poll by Rasmussen, the most disreputably partisan pollster in America, just makes him seem all the more pathetic. And yet, Trump frequently alerts his Twitter cult followers when Rasmussen spikes a bit. Never mind that the numbers always take a dive shortly thereafter. Here are some more recent examples:

Trump’s characterization of Rasmussen as an accurate pollster is wildly off the mark. The survey experts at FiveThrityEight give Rasmussen a C+ rating. They rank ABC/Washington Post at A-Plus. And in every case, the numbers celebrated by Trump above declined in the days following his boast. There’s no reason to think that they won’t do the same tomorrow.

For the record, the RealClearPolitics average poll of polls has Trump with a 42.2 percent approval, and 54.4 disapproval. And that’s including Rasmussen’s outlier numbers in the average. But if Trump wants to believe that he’s loved by a nation that clearly despises him and his policies, and if he wants to convince his Deplorables of the same reality distortion, well, that’s his prerogative. It’s only going to make their eventual collision with the truth all the more painful.

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

LATE ADDITIONS: Trump continues to post these same nonsense tweets even though the numbers go right back down in the days that follow. He’s done it dozens of times.

Fox News Primetime Shows are Bleeding Audience, Advertisers, and Revenue Due to Excessive Assholery

Posted by on February 7, 2019 at 12:59 pm. 7 Comments :

The news just keeps getting worse for Donald Trump’s favorite television network. Over the past three months Fox News has been thrashed in the Nielsen ratings by MSNBC, particularly by Rachel Maddow who has topped her competition, Sean Hannity, almost every night since the November midterm election.

Fox News, Titanic

Now TheWrap is reporting that Hannity’s primetime colleagues have problems of their own. Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have both been the targets of advertiser boycotts as a result of commentaries that were especially loathsome. Not that their regular topics don’t routinely offend decent people. But even these weasels can cross lines that are impossible to ignore:

“According to an analysis for TheWrap by advertising data firm Standard Media Index, Fox News’ 10 p.m. slot, hosted by Ingraham, was down at least $16 million in ad revenue in 2018. Carlson’s show, which airs at 8 p.m., has lost another $2.2 million thanks to an ad boycott that began in December after he said mass immigration makes the U.S. ‘poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.'”

Tucker Carlson’s flagrant white nationalism has become a staple of his nightly program. It’s unconscionable that any advertisers continue to support him. But the exodus of ads has definitely proven to be more than a temporary setback. Carlson is currently is running about half of the ads he had prior to the boycott. And they have been replaced by unpaid Fox promos and public service announcements.

Laura Ingraham’s problems began after she attacked the survivors of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting. These are kids who suffered a nightmare that no one should ever face, but who Ingraham considered fair game for even more abuse. She is also notorious for her racist and elitist views, such as when she said that basketball legend and philanthropist LeBron James should “shut up and dribble.” Now her advertisers have also been cut in half.

Fox News is standing behind their repugnant hosts. They insist that they will not be bullied by lefties like Media Matters and Sleeping Giants. What’s more, they contend that they haven’t lost any revenue as a result of these boycotts because the ads were merely “shifted to other dayparts.” That’s an outright lie. It would mean that the other programs had unsold ad inventory that these ads could be slipped into. But even if they do, that means they still lost money because they were only replacing one ad for another. Additionally, an ad in primetime costs much more than other dayparts, so such shifting would require those ads to be discounted.

And that’s not all. With MSNBC taking the number one spot in most of the primetime cable news market, Fox News would have to lower their ad rates because advertisers aren’t going pay a premium for a number two network. And with that change in leadership comes an even bigger problem for Fox. Like every cable channel, Fox News makes most of its profits through licensing fees from cable system operators. They currently have a very lucrative contract that was negotiated at the height of their ratings success. Now that they are no longer the leader, those contracts will decline in value when they are up for renewal.

All of this is due to Fox’s determination to advance a radical right-wing agenda and to serve as the State TV mouthpiece for Donald Trump. It’s an unsustainable business model as the nation wakes up from its temporary lapse in judgement and rejects Trump and the sycophantic, cult-like GOP that he commandeered.

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

The midterm election that produced a historic shift in party control in the House of Representatives was just the beginning. And as the legal consequences of Trump’s criminal and treasonous activities unfold, Fox is going to find itself in ever deeper trenches of muck. That’s surely not going boost their bottom line.

HUH? Fox News Doofus Thinks that the Democratic Women at the State of the Union Like Trump

Posted by on February 6, 2019 at 6:19 pm. 4 Comments :

Anyone who has spent any time watching Fox News is well aware that it is a blatantly biased mouthpiece for conservative Republicans in general and the President in particular. It is often referred to (by me) as “State TV” because of its devoted support for everything Donald Trump does and says. And when they aren’t furiously defending the President, they are viciously attacking his critics.

Fox News Friends

That creates plenty of opportunities for them to embarrass themselves with painfully ignorant rants and diatribes that are entirely devoid of facts, logic, or reason. Their hosts and guests are notoriously ill-informed or deliberately dishonest. But every now and then they outdo themselves with comments that are so profoundly stupid it’s hard to comprehend they could make them without the aid of some powerful psychotropic medications. And Wednesday morning, following Trump’s State of the Union address, there was just such an event.

During the speech, Trump pointed out that there were more women serving in the current session of Congress than ever before. That brought the mostly Democratic women in the audience to their feet as they cheered and congratulated themselves on their victories. This startled Trump who said that “You weren’t supposed to do that.” It’s hard to tell if he was referring to their applause or to the fact they got elected. But it was Fox News who really excelled at misunderstanding what had taken place. Steve Doocy, co-host of Fox and Friends, opened the program with this bit of celebration on Trump’s behalf:

“How do you like him now? Well the ladies of the freshman class of the Democrat Party seemed to like the President a lot last night. They gave him a standing ovation when he was talking about how many women were in the workforce and how many of them were elected in this past election.”

Holy Crap! Is Doocy having a stroke? Does he really believe that these Democratic women were standing up for Trump? The whole reason the were all wearing white was to make a statement that was critical of the Trump/GOP agenda that is rife with misogyny and discrimination. And their outburst was an obvious expression of satisfaction for having achieved so many electoral victories on behalf of women, and at the expense of Trump and the mostly Republican men they defeated.

They were protesting Trump, not applauding him. It’s one thing for Trump to misunderstand this reaction. He is a malignant narcissist who is mentally incapable of recognizing any derogatory sentiments aimed at him. His sickness results in his only seeing how much everyone – in his warped mind – loves and admires him. But watching these Fox News hacks so badly mangle reality makes one wonder if they are also severely delusional, or just determined to distort reality for their audience of Deplorables no matter what depths of absurdity they have to sink to. Either way, it exposes them as utterly useless as commentators on current events or more pointedly, the complexity of politics. But then, we always knew that about them.

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

Fresh Off His ‘Unity’ Themed State of the Union, Trump Smears Democratic Leaders in Congress

Posted by on February 6, 2019 at 1:43 pm. 2 Comments :

On Tuesday night Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. It was delayed for a week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi due to the Trump Shutdown of the government. After capitulating to Pelosi, Trump took to the podium to present what the White House characterized as a message of unity. Which is a pretty audacious stance coming from the most divisive figure on political landscape bar none.

Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi

Trump’s allegedly unifying message contained perhaps the most brazen threat ever to be uttered in the House chambers. He warned Democrats that any efforts to investigate his criminal activities could result in an economic decline or maybe even war. He said that “the only thing that can stop” what he baselessly called an “economic miracle” are “foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.” That was not received well by House Democrats, and especially Speaker Pelosi who responded by admonishing Trump that “The president should not bring threats to the floor of the House.” They all insisted that they would carry out their constitutional duties as a separate, co-equal branch of government.

Undeterred by reason, diplomacy, or maturity, Trump followed up his threat with a more elaborate assault on those he regards as his persecutors. Chief among them is the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff (who Trump once called “Adam Schitt” in a display of petulance that would embarrass a seven year old).

Rep. Schiff is keeping his promise to hold the President – and any other public official – accountable for any breaches of the law. One of his first acts was to have the Committee vote to provide transcripts of hearings that were held under the previous chairman (Republican Devin Nunes) forwarded to special counsel Robert Mueller. That’s the sort of accountability that frightens Trump and triggers angry outbursts like the one he unleashed Wednesday morning. He began by falsely stating that Schiff had “no basis” to investigate him. And he continued in a more flagrantly personal vein (video below):

“He’s just a political hack who’s trying to build a name for himself. And I think that’s fine because that’s what they do. But there would be no reason to do that. No other politician has to go through that. It’s called presidential harassment. And it’s unfortunate, and it really does hurt our country.”

So Trump thinks that he’s the only politician who has even been investigated by a congressional committee? Was he in a coma for the dozens of hearings held about Hillary Clinton’s emails, Benghazi, Uranium One, James Comey, the Steele dossier, etc.? The difference between those hearings and the ones that will probe Trump is that the GOP hacks (including former representatives Jason Chaffetz and Trey Gowdy, both of whom now work for Fox News) persecuting Clinton never found a shred of evidence of unlawful activity, but Mueller and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York have both obtained dozens of indictments and guilty pleas.

That should satisfy Trump’s concern about having a basis. What’s more, Trump’s complaint that these investigations would “hurt our country” are bass ackwards. This is precisely what the nation needs to heal and to progress beyond the illegality committed by Trump and Company. Foiling criminal villains helps the country, it doesn’t hurt it.

Trump’s attacks are a pathetic attempt to intimidate Congress from doing its job. They are also intended to continue the process of brainwashing his Deplorables and keeping their fear and anger at a boiling point. But such attacks won’t having any impact on those who are legitimately acting in concert with law enforcement to insure that our government is being run by honest and patriotic individuals, and not weak or compromised puppets of foreign regimes like Russia, or self-interested corporations and billionaires. Which is why Schiff and his House colleagues (Elijah Cummings, Jerrold Nadler, Maxine Waters, etc.) Are doing the right thing and should be commended for their determination and service to the law.

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

Trump: ‘Presidential harassment’ hurts our country from CNBC.

Trump Begged Congress to Stop Investigating Him During a Desperate State of the Union Appeal

Posted by on February 5, 2019 at 8:40 pm. NO Comments :

The State of the Union address is always a starkly partisan affair no matter which party is in power. Every president seeks to praise their own accomplishments and lobby for their agenda. Trump is no exception, however, his attempt to present a theme of unity was laughably obtuse. There has never been a president who more directly and venomously attacked his ideological foes. And he did it with a noxious blend of seething rage and infantile petulence (video and transcript).

Donald Trump, Robert Mueller

Trump himself highlighted the contradiction between his actions and his words by inviting a guest to the event who was the victim of bullying because of his name, which happened to be Joshua Trump. But it was pointed out by some astute Twitterers that there were other attendees who were also the victims of a bully who called them names. People like Pocahontas (Sen. Elizabeth Warren), Little Marco (Sen. Marco Rubio), Low IQ Maxine (Rep. Maxine Waters), and Adam Schitt (Rep. Adam Schiff), to name just few. Trump’s hypocrisy could not be more glaring and shameless.

Perhaps the most brazen exploitation of this (or any) State of the Union was Trump’s personal appeal to Congress, and any other legal authority who might be listening, to lay off of his criminal conduct. He explicitly called for an end to the investigations related to his conspiracy with Russia, obstruction of justice, and financial corruption:

“An economic miracle is taking place in the United States, and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations. If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way. We must be united at home to defeat our adversaries abroad.”

It was particularly self-serving for Trump to couch this appeal in a threat aimed at the nation’s economic well-being. He was essentially warning those seeking justice to back off or the country would suffer. Movie mobsters did the same thing when they told their victims that they “have a nice little shop there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.”

But by inserting this admonition into his speech, Trump turned it into a legal pleading that was wholly inappropriate under the circumstances. The investigations into Trump’s activities are justified by the mountains of evidence that have already been compiled and disclosed. And the State of the Union is not the place to offer a defense or to disparage the legal entities who are just doing their jobs. That’s what courts and lawyers are for.

But Trump has been attacking law enforcement for months. He repeatedly refers to the investigations as a “Witch Hunt,” despite the fact that dozens of indictments and guilty pleas have already been obtained. The range of the investigations extend to Trump’s business (Trump Org), his now defunct foundation, his 2016 campaign, his transition team, his inauguration, and his White House. Almost everything Trump touches is poisoned by corruption.

Trump’s remarks in this address actually make things worse, because he’s trying to intimidate people by directing threats at “peace and legislation” if these investigations are not halted. But in his own words, “It just doesn’t work that way.” And the theme of unity that he pretended to put forward is betrayed by his unseemly ultimatums.

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

In the end, this speech will have no effect on the nation going forward. Trump delivered a typically partisan screed that never tried to expand his base of support or reduce the divisiveness that he has single-handedly brought to a boiling point. This speech will be remembered only for Trump’s continuing advocacy for a border wall that most Americans oppose, and his begging for the investigations, that are the source of his constant fear, to be halted. And neither of those wishes will come true.

Trump’s ‘Official State of the Union Prep Survey’ is a Laughable Example of Pure Propaganda

Posted by on February 5, 2019 at 11:48 am. 3 Comments :

The day that nobody was waiting for is finally here. Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday night. It was delayed for a week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi until Trump surrendered his demand for an idiotic wall along the southern border. Trump succumbed to Pelosi’s pressure partly because the widespread opposition to his wall depleted any leverage he might have had, and partly due to his ego-driven desire to stand before a joint session of Congress (and the nation’s TV cameras) to exalt himself and lie to the American people.

Donald Trump, SOTU

In advance of his speech, Trump posted what he’s calling an “Official State of the Union Prep Survey” on his website. His plea to the Deplorable respondents that he’s seeking asserts that “Nancy and Chuck don’t want me to speak, Mainstream Media outlets don’t want me to speak, and the Hollywood Elites don’t want me to speak. That’s why I want to hear from the ONLY people who can truly describe the state of our union – YOU, the citizens of this great nation.” All Trump has to do is look at any recent poll to know what the citizens think of him. And it isn’t pretty.

His questionnaire is not really a survey, but instead a marketing gimmick to acquire people’s email address for future spam mailings from his campaign. There is also a pitch for donations after a respondent completes the poll. Those are the real reasons this “survey” exists. A previous version of this scam dubbed the “Official Presidential Job Performance Survey,” asked “How would you rate President Trump’s job performance so far?” And the multiple choice options for your response were “Great,” “Good,” “OK,” and “Other.” Seriously!

This new survey was more of the same. It began with a fair question that asked “Do you approve of the job done by President Donald J. Trump?” This time they actually provided a choice that included both a positive and negative reply. But it went downhill from there. The questions were flagrantly biased and intended to produce answers that made the President look good. For instance, there was a question that asked “Do you think the media did a proper job of blaming Democrats for the Shutdown?” Of course, an affirmative answer agrees that Democrats were responsible for the shutdown and were properly blamed. A negative reply also means that Democrats were responsible, but deserved more blame.

Many of the rest of the questions were similarly slanted or loaded with premises that are outright lies. such as:

  • Do you feel the mainstream media is actively working against the Trump Administration?

    • – And have they stopped beating their wives?

  • Are you pleased that under President Trump, the U.S. is no longer shipping pallets of cash to the Iranian regime?

    • – Which is something that the U.S. was not doing.

  • Do you agree that U.S. citizenship is a PRIVILEGE and should only be extended to the best and brightest candidates, after an extremely rigorous screening process?

    • – Contrary to the long-held values expressed on the Statue of Liberty welcoming “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

  • Are you happier with President Trump’s first 2 years than Obama’s?

    • – Trump will never have the guts to reveal the results for this question.

  • Do you agree with President Trump’s emphasis on rebuilding America’s aging infrastructure?

    • – Which he has never emphasised in anything more than empty rhetoric.

  • Do you agree with President Trump’s unwavering commitment to, and respect for, our incredible veterans and TROOPS?

    • – Who he has lied to, robbed from, and betrayed at every turn.

  • Do you believe that President Trump is restoring America’s standing in the world?

    • – Trump should ask the world leaders this question – if he can stand the fierce rejection.

  • In regards to the Shutdown, do you believe Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer care about the safety of you and your family?

    • – Clearly Trump doesn’t, and he said so explicitly in a recent disgusting interview wherein he accused Pelosi of “doing a terrible disservice to the people of our country,” and alleging that she “doesn’t mind human trafficking.”

This is the sort of blathering propaganda that is emblematic of aspiring tyrants and familiar from Donald Trump. It’s purpose is to brainwash the ill-informed, and to keep those already fooled squarely within the embrace of the Trump Cult. The results of this survey will never see the light of day, because it’s a pretty fair bet that they would embarrass the President. Every poll shows that he is treading historic lows in voter approval, and his policies are massively unpopular.

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

None of that, however, stops Trump from pretending that he is well-loved and achieving successes far beyond what any human being ever imagined. That’s the sickness of a malignant narcissist and a wannabe dictator who is as far removed from reality as the Earth is from the Sun. And dumb polls like this only serve to prove that Trump is scared and deceiving both himself and his dimwitted Deplorables.