Rudy Giuliani Weaves an Absolutely Loony Tale of His Encounter with the FBI

On Wednesday the FBI executed a search warrant at the home and office of Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. It was, according to Giuliani, a travesty on the part of the Biden Vindictive government,” despite the fact that the investigation was launched by Bill Barr’s Justice Department when Trump was still in the White House.

Rudy Giuliani

On Thursday Giuliani visited Fox News in an attempt to extricate himself from the web of deceit he was trapped in due to his own shady dealings. He was “interviewed” by Tucker Carlson, the host who Fox News successfully argued in court could not be taken seriously. That was his first mistake. During this segment Giuliani recited his version of what took place when the feds came to his door. It’s pretty pathetic script that fails to make any sense or advance his interests. He began by constructing a thoroughly unbelievable exchange involving hard drives that he said belonged to Hunter Biden. Here is how he described the encounter:

Giuliani: ‘Don’t you want these?
FBI: What are they?
Giuliani: Those are Hunter Biden’s hard drives.
FBI: No, no, no, no!’
Giuliani: Are you sure you don’t want them? The warrant required them to take it.
FBI: No, no!
Giuliani: Don’t you think you should take it.
FBI: No!

Think about how preposterously unlikely all of that is. First of all, Giuliani wants us to believe that he was in possession of Hunter Biden’s hard drives and that he did nothing with them for two years, even though he was obsessed with destroying the Bidens. Then the FBI raids his home and he’s suddenly anxious to give them away to agents that he believes are hostile and intent on persecuting him. If there was anything incriminating on those hard drives, wouldn’t Giuliani want to retain possession of them?

Secondly, why would the FBI refuse to take these hard drives? Giuliani is insinuating that the agents are operatives of the “Deep State” who want to cover for the Biden family. So wouldn’t taking the drives serve that purpose? It would remove them from Giuliani’s custody and allow them to “lose” the alleged evidence, if that were actually their goal.

Thirdly, Giuliani’s telling of this encounter suggests that the FBI agents vehemently and repeatedly refused to take the hard drives. Are we supposed to believe that just being near the hard drives made the agents visibly nervous, and that they would expose their anxieties to the subject of their investigation?

Giuliani went on to claim that the agents were “required” to take the alleged hard drives. That’s false. They have discretion to take only what they consider to be relevant to the investigation. Giuliani also wondered why the agents would take his word for what the hard drives contained, saying that “They could have been Donald Trump’s. They could have been Vladimir Putin’s.” What exactly is he implying, and does he really want to go there? By the same token, Giuliani is asking us to take his word that any of this happened at all.

Finally, Giuliani’s claim that the evidence seized would be “exculpatory” isn’t in the remotest sense plausible. If it were true, then why would he be upset about having been served the warrant? He should be pleased that he’s about to be exonerated. Clearly his simmering panic indicates that he knows he is in legal peril.

Giuliani’s appearance on Fox News demonstrates precisely why credible lawyers don’t want their clients talking on television. Even when they they think they are among friends. In fact, being with Tucker Carlson makes it more likely that Giuliani would feel at ease and, thus, susceptible to letting something slip that is incriminating.

As a lawyer, you might think that Giuliani would know this. But as an idiot who has lost some sixty cases related to election fraud on Trump’s behalf, he has proven that he doesn’t have a clue. And he’s still Trump’s lawyer, which should make all the prosecutors investigating him very happy.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

GOP Bill Would Force Twitter to Allow Trump’s Inflammatory Lies and Disinformation

The Republican Party has been engaging in a full court press to cripple democracy across the country. They tried to obstruct and/or overturn the 2020 presidential election (and Trump is still doing so). They passed bills aimed at suppressing and disenfranchising voters, particularly those of people of color. They are disseminating the racist “white replacement theory” to frighten their base that “others” are conspiring to replace them in the electorate.

Donald Trump, Toilet, Bathrobe

Now they are upping the ante by advocating trashing the Constitution in order to impose totalitarian control over social media companies who fail to comply with their demands. NBC News is reporting that…

“Florida is on track to be the first state in the nation to punish social media companies that ban politicians like former President Donald Trump under a bill approved Thursday by the state’s Republican-led Legislature. […] the proposal appears destined to be challenged in court after a tech industry trade group called it a violation of the First Amendment speech rights of corporations.”

Let’s be clear about this. Florida Republicans are seeking to force private companies to bend to their partisan political will. Social media services like Twitter and Facebook took the extraordinary step of suspending the accounts of Donald Trump after his reckless and dishonest posts led to deadly riots in Washington, D.C. by insurrections for whom he professed his love. The sole purpose of the new law is to placate Trump and make it easier for him to advance his self-serving, anti-democratic crusade. The article went on to note that “Republicans have called social media bans unfair censorship,” and that…

“The Florida bill would prohibit social media companies from knowingly ‘deplatforming’ political candidates, meaning a service could not ‘permanently delete or ban’ a candidate. Suspensions of up to 14 days would still be allowed, and a service could remove individual posts that violate its terms of service.

“The state’s elections commission would be empowered to fine a social media company $250,000 a day for statewide candidates and $25,000 a day for other candidates if a company’s actions are found to violate the law.”

The state has absolutely no legal authority to force private companies to provide a platform for any individual. The constitutional protection against censorship applies only to the government. But Florida’s Republicans argue that the wide influence of social media is cause for increased regulation. If that’s true, then shouldn’t the same principle apply to television and newspapers that also enjoy wide influence? By that standard, shouldn’t Fox News be forced to carry my stories and opinions, and be fined if they refuse?

Republicans used to believe in something called a “free market.” They insisted that business should be free of government intervention and that the marketplace should decide the winners. Trump even made that argument recently when he predicted that Twitter and Facebook would fail without him and he floated a proposal to start his own social media company.

That’s competition. And while Trump’s alt-Twitter would likely suffer a humiliating defeat, at least it would be decided in the free market. Florida’s bill upends all of that and puts the boot of autocracy on businesses that they regard as disobedient. Which is further proof that Republicans are flaming hypocrites who will discard any and all principles when they don’t adhere to their advantage.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Crybaby Trump Predicted Twitter and Facebook Would Fail Without Him – Wrong Again!

Late last year Donald Trump was feverishly ranting about the election that he lost by more than seven million votes (and he still is). He insisted that he was robbed, despite being unable to produce even a sliver of evidence. He lost more than sixty lawsuits alleging voter fraud that didn’t exist.

Donald Trump

Trump’s dissemination of that “Big Lie” eventually resulted in the deadly riots on Capitol Hill by his insurrectionist brigades who hoped to obstruct Congress from certifying the election. It also led to his banishment from many social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook.

Most Americans were relieved to be free of his noxious incoherence and lies. In fact, there was proof that his absence actually reduced misinformation online by 73%. But Trump was was crushed that he could no longer vent maniacally to his crazed cult followers. He lashed out at Twitter and Facebook, predicting that they couldn’t survive without him, claiming that he would prevail in the end. Just last week he whined that

“I’m really getting the big word out because we’re doing releases. And every time I do a release it’s all over the place. It’s more elegant than Twitter. And Twitter now is very boring. A lot of people are leaving Twitter. […] And it’s no good anymore.”

That, of course, is certifiably delusional. And the proof of that was revealed in the most recent quarterly reports by both Twitter and Facebook. These were the first full quarters after Trump’s order into exile. Twitter reported that “they project revenue will grow by 24% in the first quarter to $1 billion.” Facebook similarly reported that “revenue jumped 48% to $26.2 billion, well above analyst expectations.” There are plenty of problems with these social media services (see my note below), but profitability isn’t one one of them.

So apparently these supposedly mortally wounded businesses are actually getting along just fine. In fact, they are thriving without Trump like never before. Consequently, they probably aren’t taking his predictions seriously. Nor are they likely to be concerned about his threat to start his own social media venture. In all likelihood, any new business that Trump launches would suffer the same fate as most of his previous businesses – humiliation and bankruptcy. Which shouldn’t bother him much because, by now, America’s Biggest Loser should be used to it.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

The GOP Response to Biden’s Speech Sounded Like a Trump Rally Rant

President Biden’s long anticipated address to Congress was delivered Wednesday night with the grace, compassion, and appeal for unity that has become the hallmark of Joe Biden’s presidency

Joe Biden, GOP, Titanic

Biden spoke to the full array of issues that have been at the top of the American people’s list of priorities, including the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery, jobs, climate change, healthcare, infrastructure, race, police reform, education, tax equity, gun safety, immigration, and foreign policy. It was a speech that radiated the calm resolve of a confidant and competent leader, as opposed to the fire-breathing bluster and lie-riddled babbling of the Former Guy, Donald Trump.

Apparently, the American people are relieved to finally have a sane president after four years of lunacy, incompetence, rancor and chaos. They appreciated hearing a speech that wasn’t crammed with flagrant falsehoods, vicious insults, and the pathological, undeserved bragging of malignant narcissist.

A CBS News poll found that Biden’s speech was received with overwhelming favorability. The poll showed that a huge majority of those who watched the speech approved of it (85%). They thought Biden was “presidential” (89%), “caring” (89%), “inspiring” (84%), and “bold” (80%). They said the speech made them feel “optimistic” (78%), and that his plans would “mostly help” them (74%).

However, it didn’t take long to be reminded of the GOP’s way outside Trumpian view as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina stepped up to deliver the Republican response (video below). He began by throwing some passive-aggressive shade saying that “We just heard President Biden’s first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words.”

“Seems like” a good man? That’s the sort of backhanded “compliment” someone might say about Ted Bundy. Scott went on to disparage Biden’s promise to “unite a nation,” “lower the temperature,” and to “govern for all Americans.” “But three months in,” Scott complained without any basis, “the actions of the President and his party are pulling us further apart.”

Scott also vowed that he wouldn’t “waste your time tonight with finger-pointing or partisan bickering.” What came next was fourteen minutes of finger-pointing and bitterly partisan rhetoric. For instance:

“Democrats wanted to go it alone. They spent almost $2 trillion on a partisan bill that the White House bragged was the most liberal bill in American history!”
That was the COVID relief and stimulus bill that had the support of 76% of the American people, including 60% of Republicans.

And yet, every single Republican in Congress voted against it.

“Less than 6% of the President’s plan goes to roads and bridges. It’s a liberal wish-list of Big Government waste… plus the biggest job-killing tax hikes in a generation.”
Except that most analysts agree that the broadly popular plan would create millions of jobs in emerging technologies that transcend the conventional and crumbling definition of “infrastructure.”

“Tonight we also heard about a so-called ‘Family Plan.’ Even more taxing, even more spending.”
More Republican “tax and spend” talking points. Never mind that most voters (64%) want corporations and the wealthy to finally pay their fair share. And once again, that includes a majority (53%) of Republicans.

“Now, he says your tax dollars should fund abortions. He’s laying groundwork to pack the Supreme Court.”
These are not just GOP talking points, they are blatant lies.

“Democrats used the filibuster to block the debate from even happening.”
It’s always cute when Republicans project their own flaws onto others. Their rampant obstructionism when they held the Senate majority reached unprecedented levels. And if the GOP is upset that Democrats used the filibuster to block legislation, then why are they complaining when Democrats are volunteering to abolish it?

“Republicans support making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
They have a funny way of showing it. They are passing bills across the country to suppress and/or disenfranchise voters, especially people of color. And they still can’t show any evidence of any significant voter fraud.

“Our best future won’t come from Washington schemes or socialist dreams.”
You can’t have a Republican rant without throwing in baseless allegations of socialism. Even though they don’t know what it means. To them it’s just a buzzword intended to stir irrational fears.

However, perhaps the most disturbing part of Scott’s harangue was when he raised the matter of race. As the only Black Republican in the Senate he has some license to speak on the subject. Sadly, he wasted it. He forcefully beseeched the nation to “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.” But that came just two minutes after relating this real-world experience of most Black Americans:

“I have experienced the pain of discrimination. I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while I’m shopping.”

So which is it? it’s hardly possible to undergo those indignities and prejudices in a country that isn’t racist to some notable degree. And add to that the way too frequent incidents of police shootings of Black people; the recent Capitol insurrection that featured Confederate flags and rioters shouting epithets at Black officers; the growth of white nationalist groups and militias. At least Biden actually referenced that brand of domestic terrorism in his speech, saying that…

“We won’t ignore what our own intelligence agencies have determined – the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”

The speech by Scott could have been written by Donald Trump, or more likely one of his speech writers, since Trump is borderline illiterate. It was hostile, dishonest, and littered with right-wing rhetoric and invective. There wasn’t a hint of any policy proposals because Republicans don’t have any actual ideas other than hating on Democrats. That was the resounding message contained in the GOP response. And the American people saw it and will have their own response when election time comes again.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

HAH! Rudy Giuliani Before the Raid Was ‘Proud to Be On Biden Vindictive Government List’

Another day, another Donald Trump associate in legal hot water. This time it’s his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who is no stranger to being slathered in the slime that emanates from Trump World. He is already named in a billion dollar lawsuit by Smartmatic for defaming the company and spreading Trump’s “Big Lie” about election fraud.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump

On Wednesday morning it was revealed that Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment was raided by FBI agents on a warrant seeking to confiscate “electronic devices.” According to the New York Daily News

“The FBI raided Rudy Giuliani’s Upper East Side apartment Wednesday morning in connection with the ongoing investigation into his dealings in Ukraine. […] The raid, first reported by The New York Times, is an overt sign that Manhattan federal prosecutors’ investigation into Giuliani is entering a new phase. It’s also a sign prosecutors think they have a strong case. Giuliani.”

This is a profoundly significant event in the long running investigation of Giuliani and his shady – already indicted – accomplices, Igor Fruman amd Lev Parnas. But it isn’t news to Giuliani. Last December he referenced the legal sword dangling over his leaky head in a tweet bursting with arrogance and pride:

Giuliani’s feigned outrage and utterly hysterical bravado will come as no surprise to anyone. After all, this is the same brilliant legal mastermind who proclaimed that truth isn’t truth,” and presided over a loopy press conference at the Four Seasons – not the luxury hotel, but a local landscaping establishment sandwiched between a sex shop and a crematorium.

Giuliani seemed to think that Joe Biden was already president a month before his inauguration. Why else would he brag that he was “proud to be number one on Biden Vindictive government list,” when there wasn’t any Biden list – or government at all – at the time, vindictive or otherwise?

Giuliani then watered down his ludicrous assertion by attributing his persecution to “DOJ anti-Trumpers.” However, the investigation of Giuliani was being conducted entirely by Trump appointees in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. And they reported to Trump’s hand-picked Attorney Genuflect, Bill Barr. So if anyone was acting as the “GOVERNMENT Secret Police,” it’s Trump and his Justice Department.

Finally, Giuliani complained that there is no reason for this investigation because there has been no wrongdoing. That, of course, is not the opinion of the investigators who had already secured the indictments of his partners in crime. As for attorney/client privilege, there was no evidence that that was ever breached. Giuliani was not acting as Trump’s attorney when he sought to blackmail Ukraine’s president.

The consequences of Giuliani’s criminal misbehavior are beginning to emerge. The evidence contained on his phones and computers is likely to be incriminating, both for him and his sole client, the twice impeached former reality TV game show host. And if they’re lucky, they’ll be able to share a cell.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Tucker Carlson Orders Viewers to Harass Mask Wearers and File False Police Reports

Throughout his tenure on Fox News, Tucker Carlson has distinguished himself as the network’s preeminent white nationalist and most prolific disseminator of ultra-rightist propaganda. He recently devoted episodes of his program to ranting incoherently that coronavirus vaccines don’t work, he advanced the Nazi-inspired “white replacement theory,” and he expressed his support for Trump’s Capitol insurrectionists, insisting they were just peaceful protesters.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Coronavirus

Not content to rest on his loathsome laurels, Carlson is now advising his dimwitted viewers to take hostile actions against anyone they see on the street wearing a mask in order to prevent exposure to COVID-19. His primetime tirade was tantamount to a directive to harass innocent citizens who are behaving responsibly and voluntarily in the exercise of their rights to stay alive and protect others. Carlson’s harangue began with this utterly false assertion (video below if you can stomach it):

“Masks are purely a sign of political obedience. Like Kim Il Sung pins in Pyongyang. We wear them because we have to. The only people who wear masks voluntarily outside are zealots and neurotics.”

Actually, people who wear masks are following the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and virtually every public health expert in the country. [Note: New CDC guidance has relaxed mask wearing outside, but only for those who are fully vaccinated]. No one is forced to wear masks outside. But Carlson wants to force everyone to obey his warped perspective of life during a deadly pandemic. He is the wannabe totalitarian demanding obedience. He continued…

“They are the aggressors. It’s our job to brush them back and restore the society we were born in. So the next time you see somebody in a mask, on the sidewalk on a bike path, do not hesitate. Ask politely but firmly, ‘Would you please take off your mask? Science shows there is no reason for you to be wearing it. Your mask is making me uncomfortable.’ We should do that, and we should keep doing it until wearing a mask outside is roughly as socially accepted as lighting a Marlboro inside an elevator. It’s repulsive.”

Carlson’s command to his minions is, to say the least, bizarre. How does someone wearing a mask make someone else uncomfortable? Obviously it doesn’t. It’s just Carlson’s way of justifying his demands for compliance with his directives. And anyone confronted by one of Carlson’s criers should let them know precisely where they can get off. But Carlson still wasn’t finished. In fact, he was getting worse…

“As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be illegal. Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart. Call the police immediately. Contact Child Protective Services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you’re looking at is abuse. It’s child abuse and you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.”

Seriously? Carlson is equating the wearing of a soft cloth face covering with physical assault. And he’s intruding on the lawful and responsible parenting duties of strangers. But his advice is not only offensive, it’s illegal. He is instructing his viewers to commit felonies. It is against the law to file a false police report. And that’s the only way to describe what Carlson is suggesting. No law enforcement officer, or district attorney, would regard a child wearing a mask as the victim of abuse.

This is a not a matter of free speech. Just as yelling “fire” in a crowded theater where there is no fire is not constitutionally protected, neither is provoking hostilities and suborning unlawful acts. Carlson’s rhetoric in this diatribe is unambiguously dangerous both to people who want to avoid virus transmission, and to parents and children who are victimized by Carlson’s cult followers.

Fox News has successfully argued in court that no reasonable viewer would take Carlson seriously. The problem, though, is that Carlson’s viewers are not reasonable. This latest outburst has the clear potential to incite violence. And if it does, Carlson – and Fox News – must be held accountable.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Psaki Bomb: Nobody Cares that Joe Biden Hasn’t Met with Kevin McCarthy

The first hundred days of the Biden administration has seen unprecedented productivity. Along with delivering on – and doubling – a campaign promise to get 100 million Americans vaccinated for COVID, Biden has presided over the passage of a $2 trillion pandemic relief and stimulus bill, restored Obamacare, rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization, introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill, and drafted new infrastructure and jobs legislation.

Psaki Lightening

On virtually every one of these issues Biden has managed to secure majority support from the American people. On many of these issues that includes majority support from Republican voters. And despite that overwhelming popularity, the Republicans in congress have responded by objecting to anything and everything put forward by Biden and the Democrats to move the country forward. It’s knee-jerk obstructionism in the most poisonously partisan way.

That disparity between the negatively charged Republican Party and their hapless constituents was illustrated perfectly during Monday’s White House press briefing. Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to, once again, field questions from determined right-wing hacks posing as journalists. It’s becoming a routine spectacle that invariably results in what is now known as the Psaki Bomb.” The latest example occurred when David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network initiated this exchange with Psaki:

Brody: [Biden] has not met with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy. What does that say about unity? And also there are some other legislative issues as it relates to HR 1, and a commission studying on packing the Supreme Court, as you would say. And there’s a lot of other lists as well. Budget reconciliation. So there’s a lot of folks – you talk about tens of millions of people – they’re concerned that this doesn’t seem like unity at all.”
Psaki: Do you think tens of millions of people are concerned about him not meeting with Kevin McCarthy?
Brody: No. I think tens of millions of people are concerned about HR 1 and budget reconciliation and going that fifty vote threshold.
Psaki: I’m not sure the polling bears that out. but I will say that the President’s view is that bringing the country together is bringing the American people together.

Psaki wasted no time in shooting down Brody’s suggestion that “unity” is somehow dependent on whether or not Biden meets with the minority leader of the House, Kevin McCarthy. Particularly when Biden’s policies are better liked by Republican voters than McCarthy is (He currently has a 20% approval rating, while Biden’s is in the mid-50s). Psaki pointedly noted that voters don’t really care about whether Biden meets with McCarthy, and that Biden is more focused on bringing together the American people than on uniting members of Congress when the GOP has no intention of playing nice.

Brody’s phrasing of his question revealed his bias when he referenced the commission that Biden formed to study judicial reforms. Brody called it a study “on packing the Supreme Court.” That, of course, is right-wing talking point. But he came closer to matters that voters actually care about when he tweaked his question to direct it to HR 1, the House-passed voting rights bill. There really are tens of millions of Americans who are concerned about getting this bill passed and signed in order to block the efforts by Republicans to make voting more difficult in many GOP-run states.

Psaki continues to impress with her sharp intellect and her gentle snark. Or is that her gentle intellect and her sharp snark. Either way she is an effective communicator and not someone these half-witted right-wing shills should be challenging. But they just don’t seem to learn that.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Fox News Cherry-Picks COVID Data to Make Blatantly Dishonest Political Points

There has been profoundly positive news lately regarding the Coronavirus pandemic. Nationwide the number of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have declined significantly. We’re not out of the woods yet, and variants still pose a risk, but we’re heading in the right direction. That’s a direct result of the competence and compassion provided by the Biden administration.

Fox News, Covid

Unfortunately, the reporting of this data continues to be distorted beyond any recognition to reality by Fox News and their confederates in right-wing media. On Monday morning Fox News put out a report that was deliberately misleading, in an attempt to boost the profiles of Republican led states Florida and Texas, while disparaging states with Democratic leadership. The headline read “Fully open Texas and Florida reporting fewer COVID cases than Democrat-led Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.” The opening paragraph elaborated…

“Republican-led states including Texas and Florida are reporting fewer coronavirus cases than Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York — all of which are led by prominent Democrats who refuse to roll back COVID-19 regulations and statewide mask mandates, according to CDC data.”

The operative word in that paragraph is “reporting,” something that Fox News abandoned long ago in favor of making stuff up. It may be true that Texas and Florida reported fewer cases of COVID than New York and the other states mentioned, however, there’s two notable explanations for that. First, their “reporting” has been stifled by brazenly partisan administrators. And second, they have cut back significantly on the testing which would identify the true number of new cases.

A more honest and accurate presentation of the data shows that Texas and Florida are actually underperforming most of the big Democratic run states. California, for instance, currently has the lowest positivity rate in the nation. And it is not inconsequential that, while testing in Texas and Florida is far lower, their positivity rates are much higher:

State Positivity % New Daily Cases Tests per 100,000
Texas 5.2 1,239 220.9
Florida 9.1 4,671 299.1
Pennsylvania 8.4 2,494 356.1
Illinois 3.5 2,047 604.3
New York 2.2 4,064 1,022.5
Massachusetts 1.9 1,214 1,133.1
California 0.9 625 495.4

It’s fair to assume that if Texas and Florida were testing at the same rate as the other states, and reporting honestly, they would have higher incidents of new cases. But they are employing the Donald Trump Blind Math Maxim: If you don’t test, there aren’t any cases.

Any method of reporting that twists reality into something that Fox News can peddle to their cult followers is, in their view, preferable to allowing their audience access to the truth. As a result, Fox News is, perhaps, second only to Donald Trump as most responsible for the avoidable deaths of more than 560,000 Americans. It’s why studies have shown that just watching Fox News actually increases coronavirus fatalities. Fox should be required to run a crawl that states that “Fox News is Hazardous to Your Health.”

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

QAnon Rep Lauren Boebert Has a Sad Over Biden Doing What He Was Elected To Do

President Biden is really confounding the Trump-deprived Republican Party. They have been struggling for weeks to find any line of criticism that is plausible, or even remotely believable. Their efforts have led to ludicrous contrivances roping in innocent victims like Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. But Biden’s approval has actually increased since he beat Donald Trump last November, and is double-digits higher than Trump’s was at the same point.

Republican False Knowledge

The GOP has taken a stridently anti-Biden path with knee-jerk opposition to his most ambitious initiatives. Not a single Republican in Congress voted for the COVID relief and stimulus bill that garnered majority support by the American people, including Republicans. They are similarly rejecting Biden’s infrastructure and jobs bill that has equal support across the political spectrum.

As a result, Republican backbenchers are throwing whatever mud they find handy at the wall and hoping something sticks. So far, they have come up empty, unless you count the humiliation they’ve accumulated. Take, for instance, Colorado QAnon congresswoman Lauren Boebert (please). On Sunday she tweeted this…

Fortunately, we don’t have to imagine that. Biden has come into office and set a course toward undoing much of the damage that Trump and his thug brigades worked so hard to achieve. Biden told voters he would do just that during his campaign, and he’s keeping his promise. What Boebert doesn’t get is that this is not some new staff at a business coming in and changing everything. It is a new administration in the White House that the American people put there to do precisely what they’re doing.

However, that isn’t the only thing that Boebert is too ignorant to comprehend. Later the same day she tweeted this…

Boebert thinks that America’s millionaires and billionaires deserve a tax holiday? Never mind that they already “profited handsomely” during the pandemic. As reported by USA Today, while “The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an economic crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression [and] more than half a year later, more than 11 million Americans remain unemployed […] America’s 614 billionaires grew their net worth by a collective $931 billion.”

So naturally Republicans like Boebert want to throw more money at their wealthy benefactors. Biden, on the other hand, is focused on rest of the population that has just received another stimulus check that every Republican voted against. And Biden thinks that it’s time for the rich to pay their fair share, so he’s proposing increases on taxes, but only for those earning more than $400,000.

What’s more, Boebert’s disingenuous sympathy for the small business that were locked down, and the job losses she mentioned, doesn’t acknowledge that all of that economic pain was exacerbated by Trump and her party’s negligent and incompetent mishandling of the pandemic. After that, it’s rather callous of her to use the suffering of the American people as a cudgel against Biden who is actually doing something to help them.

Finally, Boebert also posted a hysterical complaint regarding Biden’s attention to the climate crisis. She tweeted…

That tweet was in response to reporting by Fox News that consisted of their customary lies and distractions (and was even retweeted by the governor of Texas):

The only thing you need to know about this is that none of it is true. While it would be beneficial to both the health of the planet and its human occupants to reduce their intake of red meat, the charge that Biden made a proposal to force its elimination is flagrantly untrue. See this thread (and this article) for more details:

This is the sort of desperation that Republicans are resorting to attack Biden and other Democrats. They haven’t got anything substantive to talk about, so they invent “scandals” and distribute them to their dimwitted cult followers. But true to form, they don’t even do that very well.

UPDATE: Fox News issued a correction for their hamburger story.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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

Newt Gingrich Tells Fox News Biden’s Agenda, that Majority Supports, is Anti-American

Whenever you hear Republicans bring up “traditional” values, it’s a safe bet that the speaker is a hypocritical slimeball. Case in point, Newt Gingrich showed up on Fox News Saturday to commiserate with Jeanine Pirro on how dreadfully amoral they think Democrats are. For the record, that’s the thrice-married Trump-fluffer Gingrich, and the divorced tax cheat and “Big Lie” peddler Pirro, opining on other peoples morals.

Joe Biden, Donald Trump Baby, Fake News

During the segment Gingrich delivered an extended sermon asserting his predictably hostile perspective on President Biden. It will surprise no one that Gingrich is a political foe of all things Democratic, however this particular outburst was even more malicious and dishonest than his usual bombast.

Gingrich began with an ad hominin insult about “Every idiotic thing that the Biden administration has done in the first 100 days,” but then failed to identify a single thing that would qualify as being “idiotic.” His elaboration just got even more distant from reality:

“You begin to realize – whether it’s threatening everybody who believes in the 2nd Amendment, or attacking everybody who believes in right to life, or is attacking people of traditional values who are appalled that this administration would fly the gay flag at American embassies all over the world – I mean you just go down, item by item, and it’s almost like they have a checklist of what can we do that will really, truly infuriate traditional Americans.

And I’ve never seen anything like it. Somebody asked me this afternoon and I told them I couldn’t imagine any administration which had been this deliberately anti-American, and this deliberately committed to infuriating the majority of the American people.”

Gingrich is articulating a definition of “traditional values” that is composed entirely of support for mass murder by unregulated firearms, opposition to women having control of their own bodies, and a firm commitment to blatant homophobia. Which makes his value system one of gun worshiping, misogynism, bigotry. That may be consistent with right-wing, religious zealotry, but not with the values enshrined in the Constitution.

What’s more, Gingrich’s assertion that Biden’s positions are “anti-America” is downright preposterous. And he knows it. He is enough of a political animal to have seen the polling on the issues he raised. And on every one of them, the American people are aligned with Biden and the Democrats.

Gun Safety: “Sixty-four percent of registered voters said in the Morning Consult-Politico tracking poll released Wednesday that they supported ‘stricter gun control laws in the United States,’ while 28 percent said they were opposed to tougher legislation.” [Also supported: Expanding background checks to all gun sales (83%); preventing people flagged by health providers as mentally unstable from owning guns (83%); banning people on federal watchlists from owning guns (76%); waiting periods of three days (73%); and national database of gun sales (70%)]

Pro-Choice: “Abortion rights in the U.S. are as popular now as they’ve ever been. Last year, nearly every major poll on abortion rights found support for Roe v. Wade at record highs. A June CBS poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade’s protections in place, while less than one-third want to overturn them. It wasn’t just Democrats: A strong majority of independents and a plurality of Republicans said they wanted to keep Roe v. Wade around, too.”

LGBTQ Rights: “Seventy percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, according to the 11th annual American Values Survey, the highest percentage recorded by a major national poll. […] Approval crossed the political divide, with majorities of Democrats (80 percent) and independents (76 percent) supporting same-sex marriage, and 50 percent of Republicans.”

Consequently, if anyone is anti-American it’s Gingrich and his GOP confederates. They are consistently opposed to the priorities of the American people. Every Republican in Congress just voted against the broadly popular COVID relief/stimulus bill. And they are set to do the same to the infrastructure/jobs bill that just passed in the House. They are rejecting these bills on purely political grounds, even though majorities of their own constituents support them. That’s about as anti-American as you can get. Talk about “infuriating the majority of the American people.”

UPDATE: Also trolling the “anti-American” theme is Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. She posted this glaringly ignorant tweet suggesting that Biden’s patriotism is suspect because there wasn’t an American flag behind him in his climate change Zoom summit with world leaders. She mistakenly said that…

“By the way, in that shot I think it’s also really interesting to point out that President Biden is the only leader without a flag behind him. Everybody has their flag. We don’t have the American flag behind Joe Biden. Interesting.”

Um, yes we do. It was just the angle and framing of the video. So much for Fox “news” research and reporting.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.

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