Trump Fluffs Lou Dobbs of Fox News for Feeding His Mad Lust for Flattery

Posted by on January 15, 2020 at 1:53 pm. 4 Comments :

Wednesday morning was buzzing with historic news and revelations of scandal. and none of it was good news for Donald Trump. Most prominently was the House of Representatives voting to send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. And none too soon. The American people’s desire to see Trump removed from office is growing. But there was also new reporting tying Trump to the nefarious activities of Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, and the troubling surveillance of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

Fox News, Lou Dobbs

Trump has been actively employing petty tactics he picked up while hosting his reality TV game show. He’s been counter-programming events that he fears will reflect poorly on him. So on Tuesday evening he held another of his cult rallies to coincide with the Democratic primary debate in Iowa. And on Wednesday he scheduled a signing ceremony for what is being called “Phase One” of a trade deal with China. Never mind that no one has seen the contents of the alleged deal. Trump was only concerned with trying to steal attention away from the impeachment vote in the House. He failed at both of these cynical ploys.

Trump’s flagrantly manipulative signing ceremony was a wholly vacant waste of time that produced nothing newsworthy. Trump spent a full half hour thanking the shameless toadies in the room, including members of his Cabinet and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It was a such a painfully boring presentation that even Fox News cut away from it. Which is a shame, because had they stayed tuned they would have seen Trump planting a big fat wet kiss on Fox host Lou Dobbs (video below):

“A man who always liked me, because he’s smart, so smart. The great Lou Dobbs. You know, at first he said, ‘He’s the best since Reagan.’ Then he got to know me more and more and he said, ‘He’s even better than Reagan.’ […] He said ‘He’s the greatest of them all.’ I said ‘Does that include Washington and Lincoln?’ And he said ‘Yes.'”

Isn’t that sweet? Trump recites some nauseatingly worshipful praise about himself that he attributes to one of his biggest fans on the network that serves as his Ministry pf Propaganda. Dobbs surely has a deep infatuation with Trump and an opinion that is shared by almost nobody outside of State TV. In fact, historians ranked Trump dead last out of all forty-five presidents. Lincoln and Washington came in first and second respectively. Trump nemesis Barack Obama placed eighth. And even Bill Clinton, who was also impeached, was respectable at thirteen.

Trump also landed at the bottom of the heap in a ranking based on Gallup approval polls going back to 1937. He has never managed to hit 50% (his highest mark was only 46%). Both Obama and Clinton top out much higher, at 69% and 73% respectively. So Trump is the least popular president in history according to both historians and the American people.

Yet Dobbs – and Trump himself – have much more positive opinions that must be based on their mutual admiration society. Trump has long been enamored of Dobbs, whose advice he often seeks on official government policies. In the new book, “A Very Stable Genius,” there is a revealing illustration of Trump’s dependence on Dobbs, particularly on matters involving immigration:

“The president would routinely call [former Homeland Security director Kirstjen] Nielsen to say a version of ‘Did you see Lou Dobbs? You’re totally f*cking embarrassing me. This is my issue!’… Sometimes, Trump would refer to one of Dobbs’s proposals and say, ‘Kirstjen, just do it. Just do it.’ ‘But we can’t do it,’ Nielsen would explain, usually because whatever Dobbs had uttered on TV was against the law.”

That’s how far into the abyss of ignorance Trump has driven this country. He relies on a “shadow cabinet” of Fox News flunkies like Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and others, including legal hacks like Alan Dershowitz and Mark levin. So if you wondered how things got so bad, you now know that you can blame it on both Trump and Fox News. There isn’t much we can do about Fox, but we can get rid of Trump this coming November, if we work for it.

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

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After Years of Backing Trump’s Denials, Fox News Asks If America is ‘Ready for Russia’ in 2020

Posted by on January 14, 2020 at 1:39 pm. 2 Comments :

New reporting has confirmed that “Russian hackers targeted the Ukrainian gas company [Burisma] that’s a major focus of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.” The significance of this cannot be overstated. Recall that candidate Trump asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails before the 2016 election. And now we learn that Russia has hacked the company connected to his extortion of Ukraine to probe the Bidens prior to the 2020 election. This isn’t suspicious at all, is it?

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin

Throughout the campaign and into his presidency, Trump sought to defend Russia from charges that it was involved in the hacking of Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. He tried to shift blame to everyone form China to “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.” Trump even took the word of Vladimir Putin over that of the United States intelligence community that unanimously agreed that Russia was behind the hacking and the release of the stolen data. Asked point blank if he thought Russia was involved, Trump replied “I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

Naturally, Fox News has been taking Trump’s side in this mission to absolve Russia of any guilt and to deceive the American people. They backed up Trump’s denials at every turn and embraced his absurd call for a partnership with Russia on cyber-security matters. And they continue to do so to this day. On Tuesday morning’s episode of Outnumbered on Fox News, co-host Dagen McDowell rehashed the debunked theory that there were other perpetrators in the hacking, saying that “It’s Russia over here, but what about everything else that’s going on, whether it’s compromising our election or compromising our data security?” That led to this exchange (video below):

Harris Faulkner: I just hope we’re ready for the next election.
Jessica Tarlov: Well, it doesn’t sound like we are.
Brian Kilmeade: I think we are.
Tarlov: Really? But there are election security bills sitting on [Mitch] McConnell’s desk that he won’t touch.
Kilmeade: I do believe we’re ready. And I believe the Russians are gonna learn that we’re going to blink the lights on that country should they try it. I think that’s the best offense. The best defense is a great offense.
Tarlov: Can you call McConnell and tell him to pass some of those election security bills?
Kilmeade: It’s already done.

Kilmeade’s confidence in America’s readiness is peculiar considering that virtually nothing has been done an a national scale to secure our election systems. His assertion that Russia would be punished for any bad behavior has no factual basis, especially since Trump has let them off the hook for their prior transgressions. In fact, Trump still seems to be inviting foreign governments to interfere in our elections, as we’ve seen with Ukraine.

If a great offense is the best defense, then the U.S. is in big trouble. We have no offense whatsoever. And our captain has not said a single word about the new report of Russians hacking Burisma. Finally, Kilmeade’s off-hand response to a request to prod McConnell into action that “It’s already done,” doesn’t even make sense. What’s been done, by whom? Certainly McConnell isn’t going forward with any election security measures.

Let’s face it, Trump doesn’t want anything to be done about election security or Russia’s interference in our elections. Even if he isn’t colluding with Russia, he knows that their efforts benefit him and wants them to continue. That’s what special counsel Robert Mueller was referring to when he said that Trump had “welcomed and encouraged“ Russia in the 2016 election.

It looks very much like the same thing is happening now. And it could have the same effect if nothing is done about it. Congress needs to act quickly and decisively to insure that our democracy isn’t subverted again. The American people need to let Congress know that we expect nothing less from them. And the media must not allow itself to be used again by foreign adversaries to disseminate their propaganda and choose our next president.

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


Trump’s Press ‘Slackretary’ Runs to Fox News to Slander Democrats as Terrorist Supporters

Posted by on January 13, 2020 at 5:29 pm. 5 Comments :

Stephanie Grisham was appointed as Donald Trump’s third press secretary in as many years on July 1, 2019. In those six months she has not held a single press briefing. However, the slacker press shill has appeared repeatedly on Fox News and a couple of other Trump-fluffing media outlets like Sinclair. So Grisham is pocketing $179,000 a year to disseminate propaganda on shamelessly biased TV networks.

Stephanie Grisham, Fox News

On Monday morning Grisham made another stop at Fox News to polish the lies of her boss. The entire segment was typically repugnant and riddled with lies (video below), but this time she managed to advance some of the most nauseating attacks on the vast majority of Americans, and specifically those who are members of the nation’s largest political party, the Democrats. Grisham responded to a question from Fox’s Harris Faulkner about Trump’s retweeting of a blatantly bigoted meme that was intended to portray House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer as terrorist enemies of the state:

Faulkner: Why would the President even take the time to retweet something like this?
Grisham: I think the president is making clear that Democrats are parroting Iranian talking points and almost taking the side of terrorists and those who were out to kill Americans. I think the President was making the point that the Democrats seem to hate him so much that they’re willing to be on the side of countries, and leadership of countries, that want to kill Americans.

This is the sort of toxic rhetoric that has become the hallmark of Trump’s debasing of the presidency. If challenged, Grisham would not be able to cite a single instance of any Democrat, much less Pelosi and Schumer, “parroting Iranian talking points” or being “on the side of countries…that want to kill Americans.” But Grisham was not challenged by Faulkner. Her despicable words were in line with the mission of Fox News to exalt Trump and disparage his critics.

Grisham has not been alone in hurling these sort of grotesque obscenities. Many other Republican cretins have gone down this same path of division and hatred. And naturally, Trump is the leader of this parade of the pathetically putrid. He retweeted five other expressions of a similarly vile nature, asserting that Democrats were supporters of terrorists. That’s a bizarre accusation coming from Trump, and not just because it’s so grossly untrue. But Trump is the one who has cuddled up to murderous tyrants like Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman, and he famously fell in love with Kim Jong Um. And not to be outdone by the Twitter brigades he retweeted, Trump composed his own tweet that accused Democrats of having an affinity for Iranian General Qasem Soleimani:

This march toward an ever more loathsome and hateful brand of politics has been in the making since Trump announced his candidacy. He believes that behaving like a severely disturbed child who’s been possessed by demons is an appropriate way to conduct government business. It’s why he continually maligns anyone who isn’t sufficiently worshipful. And, as is evident in his press secretary and his sycophants in Congress and the press, his sociopathy has infected all those around him. It’s a downward spiral that is observable in all those who still seek his favor by emulating the disgusting lack of morality that is his trademark.

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


Trump TV? Trump’s Billionaire Buddies Are Bidding to Buy Failing Fox News Foe

Posted by on January 12, 2020 at 12:54 pm. 2 Comments :

Donald Trump spent his morning doing what he does nearly every morning: Pounding out desperate comments in a flurry of rage-tweeting. For the most part his Twitter tantrums consisted of whining about having been impeached. Trump seems determined to establish himself as the most sniveling, cowardly, self-perceived victim who has ever occupied the White House.

Trump TV

At least Trump now seems to have correctly characterized his impeachment in a more realistic context asking “Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name?” Poor baby. It’s interesting that someone with a such a pronounced messiah complex would associate his tribulations with the Stigmata. Perhaps someone close to him will tell him that he’s suffering this fate because he righteously earned it by breaking laws and obstructing justice. But don’t count on that.

Trump also tweeted a couple of flagrant contradictions. In one he complained that the government of Iran would not “let reporters roam free.” This is coming from the same guy who calls U.S. reporters “the enemy of the people,” revokes their credentials, and proposes banning them from the White House. He’s a real free press advocate, isn’t he?

The other contradiction came in the form of a demand that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff be forced to testify before Congress. Really? Trump has refused to allow any members of his administration to testify in the Senate impeachment hearings, even after complaining that he was denied due process (which doesn’t exist in impeachments) during the House hearings. and, of course, he’s too scared to testify on his own behalf. Trump may be first defendant who opposes the testimony of those he says will exonerate him. That’s not the behavior of an innocent man.

The more Trump whines about impeachment, the more obvious it is that he is panicking and frightened by its prospects. He is fraught with anxiety, though he tries impotently to pretend not to be. But there’s another prospect that is bubbling up from under the surface of his fear. He might already be laying the groundwork for his post-presidency later this year.

A group of Trump’s billionaire buddies is seeking to purchase the floundering One America News Network. OANN has been trying for fifteen years to mount a challenge to Fox News as the preeminent lunatic wing of conservative media. They have had some support from Trump who has tweeted about them forty-seven times. Often when he’s mad at Fox News for not being sufficiently adoring. Trump recently advised his cult followers to “start looking for a new News Outlet” because “FoxNews doesn’t deliver for US anymore.” Which, if nothing else, is a candid admission that Trump regards Fox, not as a news network, but as part of his “us.”

So why would these wealthy Trump confederates be interested in shelling out a couple hundred million dollars for OANN? It can’t be as an investment opportunity. The “network” has so few viewers that Nielsen doesn’t even track them, and they aren’t carried by any of the major cable operators.

Likewise, Trump’s pals couldn’t be interested in acquiring OANN in order to impose a more conservative editorial posture. That wouldn’t be possible. It is already a bastion of Trump-fluffing adulation and bizarre, anti-liberal conspiracy theories, including the Seth Rich murder and George Soros smears. It has notable ties to Russia, and is suing MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow because she reported that.

There is only one other plausible reason that allies of Trump would want to take ownership of a money-losing, blatantly biased, propaganda mill. They could be planning to develop it as the media platform for a former President Trump. After all, he is going to need a job after he can no longer soak the American people by directing business to his golf resorts and hotels. And his famously gargantuan ego will require that he be in the public eye.

The question is, does the the timing have any significance. There wouldn’t be any hurry to make this acquisition if the buyers thought that Trump would be serving a second four year term. So perhaps there has already been a determination made that Trump is either going to decline to run, or that his reelection is too improbable, thus making it necessary to snatch up this stinker and begin painting the walls gold and filling it with tacky furniture.

Whatever happens, OANN will remain an also-ran in the media wars even with Trump headlining. They’ll be lucky if they’re able to give the televangelists some competition. Although, that would be much more appropriate program positioning for the Cult of Trump. And as for Trump’s Sunday Morning Tweetstorm, Speaker Pelosi had some choice words when asked for her reaction: “I don’t like to spend too much time on his crazy tweets because everything he says is a projection. When he calls somebody crazy, he knows that he is.”

UPDATE: The rumors of an OANN purchase by Trump backers is more than just talk.

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


The Trump ‘Thing’: How Ego and Fear Pushes Trump to Tweet Fake 95% Approval Polls

Posted by on January 11, 2020 at 1:42 pm. 5 Comments :

The depths of Donald Trump’s dissociation from reality seem to have no discernible bottom. And it isn’t just how fiercely he clings to obvious lies to exalt himself and malign his foes. Trump desperately needs to continually reinforce his own self image as an infallible, all-knowing, winner at everything he endeavors to attempt.

Trump Lies

There is no better indicator of severe, mentally crippling insecurity than having to repeatedly declare that you are smarter, handsomer, and more successful than everyone else. In fact, that’s something that intelligent, attractive people almost never do. Yet this is a core component of Trump’s character, or lack thereof. Never mind that he is the most unpopular president in the history of modern polling. He has never reached 50% in his three years in office. Currently, a growing majority of the American people say that he is guilty of impeachable offenses. And his standing around the world is just as dismal.

So naturally, someone as psychologically broken as Trump spent his Saturday morning boasting about what he imagines in his universal appeal. In one tweet he claimed that…

As usual, Trump doesn’t provide a link to this poll or even cite the pollster. That’s because it doesn’t actually exist anywhere but in is cartoon brain. The most flagrantly biased right-wing pollster, Rasmussen, currently has Trump at only 48%, which is down two points since the Soleimani assassination. As noted above, the majority that views Trump as guilty is growing.

As a defensive measure, Trump lashes out at his perceived enemies. Chief among them lately is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. So without any supporting rationale, Trump tweeted that she “will go down as the absolute worst Speaker of the House in U.S. history!” Of course, Pelosi has presided over the passage of more than 400 bills that GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell is sitting on. She has outsmarted Trump at every turn. And there is nothing that Trump hates more than losing to a woman. He also tweeted a grotesquely offensive lie Democrats “have spent the last 3 days defending the life of Qassem Soleimani.” No Democrat has done any such thing. They have merely (and appropriately) objected to Trump’s brazen threats to commit war crimes. Then he wrapped up his pre-dawn diatribes with this hallucinatory drivel:

In the past few months Trump has claimed dozens of times that he has 95% approval from his fellow Republicans. But he has never provided a source for that wildly implausible stat. A more realistic number was published in a poll in November that showed his GOP approval at 74%, down from 87% in July. That is hardly anything to brag about, much less a record. And considering the dwindling prospects of the Republican Party (only 28% of the electorate), even 100% of them wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy. Also, his claim to 53% overall approval is just another fabrication from his narcissistic imagination.

However, the most unintentionally hilarious part of Trump’s morning tweetstorm was his allusion to what he called “The Trump Thing.” That may sound like a lewd reference to his paltry endowment, but despite his affinity for vulgarities, that’s not the case this time. Although it is a 7-10 point modifier to enhance his manhood, in this case it relates to his standings in the polls. In his warped mind he believes that he can just tack on points to his polling for no reason other than that it pleases him.

Where Trump is getting his numbers from is a mystery. In five polls taken since Trump killed the Iranian general, he has declined in four of them (the fifth was flat). And none get anywhere near 53% (Reuters: 43%, Rasmussen: 48%, Economist: 43%, The Hill: 47%, Politico: 41%). But Trump won’t let reality get in the way of his adoration of himself. It’s hard to tell whether he posts this nonsense to persuade others that he is swimming in popularity, or to convince himself that he isn’t a total loser. But at the very least he can be secure in the knowledge that the tiny contingent of his ignorant and worshipful cult followers will believe anything he says. The problem is that he believes it too. As Ricky Gervais says…

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


Do Americans Have a Right to Know Why He Assassinated Soleimani? Trump Says ‘NO!’

Posted by on January 10, 2020 at 2:24 pm. 5 Comments :

Among the many flagrant lies that Donald Trump tells about his term in office is that it is “the most transparent presidency in history.” This is coming from a man who has so far refused to release his tax returns, his college transcripts, his health records, his visitor logs, his readouts with foreign leaders, and just this week, the travel expenditures to his golf resorts.

Donald Trump

What’s more, Trump has vigorously battled to suppress documents and to prohibit his associates from testifying before investigators from the Special Counsel’s office and from the impeachment panels in Congress. It makes no sense for someone who believes in his innocence to withhold evidence that he says would exonerate him. Trump has even unlawfully ordered staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements. Clearly he is afraid and has something to hide.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that information regarding his latest international adventurism is also being kept from the public that he is supposedly serving. In the days following Trump’s assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, his reasons for having done so remain mired in confusion and secrecy. His Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has said that Soleimani was plotting an attack that he described as an “imminent threat,” even though he couldn’t ascertain the date or time. Which means that it literally was not “imminent.” And during an interview that will appear on Fox News with Laura Ingraham Friday night, Trump added to the official White House stupor surrounding the matter (video below):

Ingraham: Don’t the American people have a right to know what specifically was targeted without revealing methods and sources?
Trump: Well, I don’t think so. But we will tell you that probably it was going to be the Embassy in Baghdad.
Ingraham: Did he have large scale attacks planned for other embassies and, if those were planned, why can’t that be revealed to the American people? Wouldn’t that help your case?
Trump: I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies,

So when asked directly whether the American people have a right to know the facts connected to mission that might have thrust the nation into a deadly and costly war, Trump gave an unequivocal “NO!” This is more evidence that he aspires to have the tyrannical authority of his heroes, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

Another peculiarity in his response was that he initially cited just a single embassy in Baghdad as a potential target. But when pressed by Ingraham, he upped the threat projection to four embassies. And this was all after he originally insisted that he had no obligation to reveal anything. It’s as if Ingraham’s line of questioning, wherein she planted the suggestion that it was in his best interest to be more forthcoming, caused him to let a little more info leak out.

The additional data that Trump disclosed was so vague as to be useless. It was also unsupported by proof of any kind. And coming from someone who is well known for being a pathological liar, it hardly represents a play for transparency. At best, this was just Trump taking an opportunity provided by his shills on Fox news to try to turn around the fact that the majority of the American people are opposed to his recent aggression in Middle East. And if he thinks that’s gonna work, he’s dumber than he looks.

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

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According to Trump and Fox News MOST Americans are Dumb, Terrorist Lovers

Posted by on January 9, 2020 at 1:54 pm. 4 Comments :

It has been clear since his inauguration that Donald Trump was not a popular figure in American politics. He has never reached 50% in approval polls, and his policies have been universally disfavored by voters. What’s more, despite his frequent and desperate denials, support for his impeachment is growing.

Donald Trump TV Set

In the aftermath of Trump’s assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the divisive rhetoric emanating from the White House has intensified. There has been a noxious effort on the part of Trump and his sycophants to portray anyone who disagrees with him as a traitor who supports the terrorists. That’s a tactic used unsuccessfully by the Bush administration to malign opponents of his invasion of Iraq. And now the StormTrumpers are employing it to attack his critics. GOP Congressman Doug Collins went so far as to say that Democrats “are in love with terrorists.”

That sort of ugliness has not been the exception from Republicans in recent days. They are desperately trying to claw their way out of the hole that Trump has dug for them. Trump’s reckless venture into international assassinations is not being met with approval by Americans or the world. And things aren’t getting any better for them as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduces a resolution to prohibit Trump from taking further rogue actions. That legislative move has triggered the Trump-fluffers on Fox News (video below):

Ainsley Earhardt: The president yesterday said the U.S. is ready to embrace peace. He’s calling for more economic sanctions on Iran’s already struggling economy. He did say that Iran is standing down, so why is the House putting up this resolution to try to limit the president’s powers?
Sarah Sanders: I can’t think of anything dumber than allowing Congress to take over our foreign policy. They can’t seem to manage to get anything done. I think the last thing we want to do is push powers into Congress’ hands and take them away from the president. Any Democrat that doesn’t understand that America is safer now that one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world is rotting in hell is completely naive and completely misses what we need to have in foreign policy.

First of all, Earhardt’s question was loaded with contradictions. She asserted that Trump was embracing peace while simultaneously imposing sanctions, which is a form of economic warfare. And that should be unnecessary if her claim that Iran is standing down is true.

While the question was a jumble of flagrantly biased presumptions, Sanders’ answer was downright demented. Apparently Sanders “can’t think of anything dumber” than the Constitution, which provides Congress with the sole authority to declare war. Congress also has the authority, under the doctrine of checks and balances, to impose limits on the executive branch’s aspirations to tyranny.

Furthermore, Sanders is among the Trump apologists who is suffering from the wishful thinking that the American people support Trump’s unlawful international adventurism. According to a new USA TODAY/Ipsos poll…

  • An 18 point majority (52%-34%), called Trump’s behavior with Iran “reckless.”
  • A 44 point majority (52%-8%), said the attack made it more likely that Iran would develop nuclear weapons.
  • By far, most Americans (55%-24%) believe the assassination made the United States less safe. Including nearly a third of Republicans.
  • By 47%-39%, those surveyed said Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani in an attempt to divert the focus from his impeachment.
  • And specifically addressing Pelosi’s resolution, a big majority (53%-33%) endorsed congressional action that would limit Trump’s ability to order military strikes or declare war without legislative approval.

So Trump, along with his surrogates and cult followers, are severely disengaged from the will of the public at large. This has been a common flaw in the thinking at the White House and their Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. They persist in trying to convince the people that they believe what they plainly do not believe. And the Trumpies may be succeeding in convincing themselves that the fantasy they imagine is actually reality. That might make them feel a little better today, but it won’t help them in November.

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


Survey Finds Trump is Not Trusted By the Vast Majority of the World

Posted by on January 8, 2020 at 1:56 pm. 7 Comments :

There couldn’t be a worse time for the United States to be embroiled in an international conflict. These dire circumstances require a steady hand and the confidence of international allies. Instead, the U.S. has Donald Trump in the White House behaving with the typically frenetic, reckless impulsiveness that has tainted his presidency.

Donald Trump

Wednesday morning we saw Trump deliver a speech wherein he once again took credit for “solving” a problem of his own making. He also reminded America and the world how poorly equipped he is to be relied on in a crisis. He spent much of his oratory ranting about how evil our enemies are and chest-thumping about how big our missiles are. That’s when he wasn’t maligning our country’s previous president, Barack Obama, someone for whom Trump still can’t control his crippling jealousy.

Trump also displayed his pitiful ignorance by proposing nonsense like his intention to “ask NATO to become much more involved in the Middle East process.” If he had any knowledgeable and experienced staffers left, he might ask them what NATO is an acronym for and why it would be inappropriate to involve it in the Middle East. Unfortunately, Trump’s managerial ineptitude has decimated his administration. Consequently, the U.S. currently is governed by “acting” department heads, including Homeland Security, Director of National Intelligence, and White House Chief of Staff.

Trump’s reputation for being a pathological liar has resulted in a serious crisis of confidence at home. A majority of voters still say Trump committed impeachable offenses. It is impossible for most Americans to believe anything he says, much less assertions with the life and death importance of justifications for war. It has already been reported that Trump’s initial claims about the need to assassinate Iran’s military commander, Qasem Soleimani, were unsupported by any credible intelligence. Even his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, walked back the claim that there was an “imminent threat” of attacks by Iran, which Trump used to validate his aggression. Now, a new survey by Pew Research confirms that that sentiment is also a worldwide phenomenon:

“As has been the case throughout his presidency, U.S. President Donald Trump receives largely negative reviews from publics around the world. Across 32 countries surveyed by Pew Research Center, a median of 64% say they do not have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in world affairs, while just 29% express confidence in the American leader.”

Notably, at the end of Obama’s term as president, confidence in him was at 64% in the same poll done in 2017. Trump’s low ratings are likely driven by his bellicose persona and ignorance of world affairs. But they are also tied to the unfavorable opinion that the world has of his policies. According to the Pew survey he is underwater on everything from tariffs, to climate change, to his border vanity wall, to immigration generally and, particularly relevant with regard to current affairs, his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear weapons agreement. And in the poll’s comparison of Trump to other world leaders…

“The survey asked all respondents about four international leaders in addition to President Trump: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump receives the highest negative ratings among the five leaders.”

Let that sink in. The world has more confidence in Putin and Xi, than in Trump. It’s also interesting to note that the animosity toward Trump does not stem from any general disdain for America. In fact, in the thirty-three countries surveyed, most (54%) have a favorable opinion of the United States. Although that number has declined since Trump’s election, it remains positive. However, as with most things, Trump has a drastically different view of reality, especially with regard to his reception in the world, as he repeatedly – and falsely – tells us on Twitter that…

So it’s important to remember that Trump’s problems are only America’s problems for so long as he is representing us. Therefore, the sooner we can remedy that problem, the better it will be for this nation and for the world.

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


Fox News Host and Trump-Fluffer Wants the U.S. to Be More Like the Terrorists

Posted by on January 7, 2020 at 12:56 pm. 1 Comments :

The White House narrative on Iran is falling apart. Donald Trump claims that he ordered the assassination of Qasem Soleimani due to intelligence that indicated he represented an “imminent threat” to the U.S. But reports from the Pentagon do not confirm the charge and officials say that any evidence is “razor thin.”

Donald Trump

Meanwhile, when asked to substantiate the allegation, Trump’s press Secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said that she couldn’t. She merely repeated the baseless speculation that American lives were saved. She also complained that people wouldn’t simply trust Trump and take his word about the whole affair. That, of course, is the wholly warranted result of his having lied non-stop throughout his presidency. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also failed when asked to provide confirmation that Iran was plotting attacks on the U.S. In fact, he resorted to a completely different “justification” that relied solely on past events.

Now the propagandists of Trump World are trying to spin his threat to destroy cultural sites as appropriate and lawful military targeting. Never mind that it is an explicit violation of both U.S. and international law. On Fox News Tuesday morning, Pete Hegseth of Fox and Friends sought to demonize rational Trump critics as treasonous saying that “I think with friends like these Democrats, who needs the Iranians” (video below). He went on to complain that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “out of her mind” for tweeting correctly that Trump had proposed committing war crimes. And then he unleashed this grotesque commentary:

“I don’t care about Iranian cultural sites, and I’ll tell you why. If they could, if Iran could, if you understand the Islamic Republic of Iran, of Islamists, if the could, if they had the power, they would destroy every single one of our cultural sites and build a mosque on top of it.”

This is a bizarre argument even if you ignore his stuttering introduction. Hegseth is saying that it’s acceptable to behave like terrorists because terrorists behave that way. He is, in effect, advocating that the U.S. adopt the tactics of terrorists. What’s next? Would Hegseth approve of Americans beheading prisoners of war? Would he favor sending suicide bombers into the lobbies of hotels where Muslims were guests? Would he support flying planes into skyscrapers in Tehran? After all, the terrorists do that, so why shouldn’t we?

The question is, did that disgusting illogic come from Trump, or did Hegseth plant it in Trump’s befuddled head? Because the President said pretty much the same thing on Monday:

“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”

This is representative of Trump’s total absence of morality. He and his cult followers believe that they can commit any crime they like with impunity. And they will also tell any lie to support their atrocities. For instance, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said on Monday that Democrats were “mourning the loss” of Soleimani. She was challenged repeatedly to provide a single example of that reckless and hateful assertion, but went into hiding rather than respond.

This tendency to endorse such repugnant acts shows how far Trump and his regime have diverged from any semblance of civil society. It marks them as aspiring terrorists themselves because, if they approve of these tactics, what separates them from the heathens they pretend to oppose? They believe that any act, no matter how heinous, is justified if your enemy would do it. But the American people, whose principles are in tact, would surely disagree and admonish Trump that “It doesn’t work that way.”

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


HEY FOX NEWS: Opposing Trump’s Derangement Is Not Support for Iran’s Terrorism

Posted by on January 6, 2020 at 3:14 pm. 5 Comments :

The debate over Donald Trump’s order to assassinate a top Iranian military commander is beginning to take on the familiar tones of the Bush administration’s dishonest and unlawful invasion of Iraq nearly twenty years ago. Following the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani there has arisen a cry from the Trump camp for an unquestioning embrace of the mission that still has not been justified or defined.

Donald Trump, Fox News, Hate Again

Bush’s rationale for invading Iraq was rooted in deliberate falsehoods about nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. His national security team would not provide any proof of the claim, but insisted that the American people get on board and support the President on blind trust. Bush famously admonished rational skeptics that “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

This is precisely how the Trump administration is framing its assault on Soleimani and his subsequent threats against Iran. Those threats include outright declarations of Trump’s intention to commit war crimes by targeting “cultural sites” with “disproportionate” force. And Trump is getting plenty of help from his State TV Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. The memo must have gone out over the weekend to portray all of Trump’s critics as unpatriotic and supporters of Iranian terrorism.

That, of course, could not be farther from the truth. It is not only possible, but necessary for free thinkers to raise questions about Trump’s actions. After all, he has refused to provide any evidence of his implausible contention that Iran was plotting attacks on the United States. And his resume of flagrant lying about all things great and small make him wholly unbelievable as a source for anything more significant than the weather (and he has blatantly lied about that as well).

That, however, isn’t what you’ll from Fox as their sycophantic shills campaign to canonize the Liar-in-Chief. It was evident early on with Trump’s favorite morning program, Fox and Friends, where co-host Ainsley Earhardt engaged in friendly banter with co-host Steve Doocy and squealed giddily that…

Earhardt: I find it so interesting that people are critical of the president’s decisions, of our intelligence community’s decisions, our general’s decisions.
Doocy: They want details.
Earhardt: Well, they can’t have it. They can’t have it. Everything can’t be made public.

That’s an astonishing commentary from the folks who have been lambasting the intelligence community as dishonest and corrupt and anti-Trump “Deep State” traitors, for the past three years. Nor have they been especially respectful of generals, three of whom Trump has fired from senior White House posts, while maligning them fools and insisting that he knows more than all of them.

Earhardt is also arguing that Trump should be permitted to withhold the intelligence that would justify his actions. That’s a bizarre position from someone supposedly in the “news” business whose job is to investigate and report on the government and the politicians who occupy it. Not that there have ever been any actual reporters on Fox News. They are there for one purpose only: to advance the propaganda of the Trump administration and, more broadly, the conservative agenda.

The notion that the media should accept and defend Trump’s secrecy was further articulated later in the day on Fox by commentator Katie Pavlich. During a debate with Democratic consultant Richard Fowler, who argued that the American people should be shown the intelligence that informed Trump’s decision, Pavlich shot back, “You’re not entitled to seeing it because people like you don’t believe in intelligence.”

Once again, this is coming from someone who has been a staunch critic of the intelligence community for years. And she’s directing this thinly veiled personal insult at “people like” Fowler, whose support for America’s intelligence agencies is well documented. What’s more, it’s absurd to suggest that disagreeing with Trump is also disagreeing with the intelligence community. There is absolutely zero evidence that intelligence was the basis for anything that Trump has done. If it was, there is surely some portion of it that he could make public.

The gist of the Fox News position is that anyone who doesn’t devotedly follow Trump and blindly believe whatever he says without question, is unpatriotic. They contend that requiring Trump to explain himself and his decisions is tantamount to sacrilege. They fail to comprehend that true patriotism requires politicians to continually justify themselves, particularly if they are known to be pathological liars.

Americans are not supposed to be regarded as, or treated like, sheep led by aspiring dictators who cannot be challenged or questioned. But according to the Fox Doctrine, Trump must be worshiped as a prophet sent by God to lead the nation into a dystopian future. That’s not how America works. Even if Trump’s lackeys appear on Fox and accuse his critics of “hero worship” of Soleimani, simply because they won’t submit to Trump’s holy version of reality. Which is what Kellyanne Conway did this morning:

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