A New Trump? Social Media Punishes WaPo Reporter for Buying Another Fake Trump Pivot

Posted by on August 22, 2017 at 3:03 pm. 3 Comments :

Monday night Donald Trump interrupted America’s TV viewing with a speech that was supposed to address the war in Afghanistan. That war is presently the longest running war in American history. It has burdened two previous presidents with its complexity and lack of effective solutions. So it hardly seems likely that a totally inexperienced “leader” with no military background is going to find the way to victory and peace.

Donald Trump

Nevertheless, that’s what Trump talked about in his rambling speech. And despite the false bravado he exuded, he said almost nothing of substance. He described a commitment to defeating the terrorists without offering any hint of a strategy. He wouldn’t confirm the deployment of more troops. There was a promise to attack at some unspecified future. The whole speech could have been summed up in tweet saying “I plan to do something at some time, and then we win.” And that wouldn’t have preempted the latest episodes of American Ninja Warrior, or Bachelor in Paradise.

Trump’s speech was another of his more restrained adventures with the Teleprompter. He read cautiously and devoid of emotion, often placing emphasis on the wrong words. But this is what some in the media regard as a “presidential” demeanor. It often triggers a knee-jerk response to proclaim that Trump has finally grown into the job. Sadly, that’s never true. But that doesn’t stop some reporters from gushing over Trump’s occasional ability to read without spitting up. For instance, here is what Philip Rucker of the Washington Post wrote following the speech:

Really? What exactly is new about this? It precisely what he has done on prior occasions when he’s been in deep trouble over some stupid remark or action. It’s a tactic to change the subject from something controversial to something utterly hollow. In this case, Trump wants to distract people from his abhorrent defense of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville. But for Rucker to assert that there was anything of substance in that speech is puzzling. The Twitter community noticed this and was quick to respond:


https://twitter.com/molly_knight/status/899810743343644672

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

It’s long past time for the press to get over the notion that Trump is going to click his boot heels and become presidential. He’s a seventy-one year old narcissist who has only ever done and said whatever the hell he wanted. And every time the press has thrown out this nonsense about a pivot point they have been badly burned. Usually within a matter of hours. So stop it, already. Realize that Trump is Trump and no matter how frightening that may be, he isn’t going to change.

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Right-Wing Media Gets Hysterically Overheated by Dumbass White House Petition

Posted by on August 21, 2017 at 3:26 pm. 1 Comments :

You know the loons that shill for Donald Trump are getting desperate when they latch onto petty nonsense. And that seems to be all they are doing these days. Many pundits are calling last week Trump’s worst week yet. But that could be said about almost any week since he was inaugurated. However, a week when he defends white supremacists and forces his political guru, Steve Bannon, to walk the plank, surely deserves a spot at the top of the list.

Donald Trump

In an effort to boost Trump’s spirits, some of his Deplorables posted a petition on the White House website. They are seeking to have the anti-fascist protest group, Antifa, officially designated a terrorist organization. The whole of the petition alleges that:

“Terrorism is defined as ‘the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims’. This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations. AntiFa has earned this title due to its violent actions in multiple cities and their influence in the killings of multiple police officers throughout the United States. It is time for the pentagon to be consistent in its actions – and just as they rightfully declared ISIS a terror group, they must declare AntiFa a terror group – on the grounds of principle, integrity, morality, and safety.”

Anti-=Fascist activists have lately been showing up at marches and rallies organized by neo-Nazis and KKK groups. They are often confrontational, but there is no evidence that they have ever initiated violence or “influenced” anyone to kill police officers. These are unsupported smears advanced by racists who don’t like being challenged.

More importantly, those responsible for this petition don’t seem the least bit disturbed by the rise of neo-Nazi groups who openly threaten violence. And they actually did commit a murder last week in Charlottesville, Virginia. However, they haven’t bothered to post a petition calling for those terrorists be officially designated as such.

Nevertheless, right-wing media has jumped all over this petition and through their promotion of it achieved a milestone. Petitions on the White House website need to get 100,000 signatures within sixty days to get a response from the Oval Office. This petition now has about 180,000. And that has set the hearts of the bigots on the right to fluttering. Here’s a short list of some of the more prominent right-wing media outlets that are all giddy over this:

  • Infowars: WHITE HOUSE PETITION CALLS ON TRUMP TO OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZE ‘ANTIFA’ AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION
  • TheBlaze: White House petition: Formally recognize Antifa as a terrorist organization
  • Breitbart: White House Petition Calls on Trump to Officially Recognize ‘Antifa’ as a Terrorist Organization
  • RT: Petition to label Antifa as terrorists hits 100k signatures required for White House response
  • Daily Caller: White House Petition To Recognize Antifa As A Terrorist Organization Hits 100k Signatures
  • And of course, Fox News: Petition to Label Antifa Terror Group Has 146,000 Signatures So Far

In addition to the weakness of their argument for this petition, these “news” manglers are exposing the blindness of their prejudice by ignoring the hostility of the right. What’s more, they are also ignoring the petition on the White House site that has the most signatures of any petition posted. With over 1.1 million accumulated to date, here is what Americans really want the President to address:

Immediately release Donald Trump’s full tax returns, with all information needed to verify emoluments clause compliance.

Since the threshold for a response is only 100,000, and Trump hasn’t responded, it’s safe to say he has no intention of doing so. But it remains to be seen if he will respond to the far less popular petition attacking anti-fascists. It’s a sad time for America when being opposed to fascism earns you a rebuke from the Republicans and, perhaps, the President. But that’s the times we are living in today in the Era of Trump.

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


Shades of Stephen Colbert: Republican National Committee Runs Most Ludicrous Poll Ever

Posted by on August 21, 2017 at 1:02 pm. NO Comments :

Things continue to go south for Donald Trump and his Republican Party. But could anyone have predicted this utterly asinine nonsense? This is an actual poll question sent by the RNC:


This is how desperate the GOP is to pump up their floundering president. They have resorted to a poll that doesn’t allow the respondent to register any criticism. That’s because Trump has to be treated like like a baby who has to be given constant positive reinforcement. There are actually White House aides who have to find stories that praise Trump and deliver them twice a day to the Infant-in-Chief.

This is so pathetic it’s hard to make fun of. Not only is Trump unfit for office, the GOP is enabling his narcissism. And in doing so they even ripped off a joke by Stephen Colbert, except they are taking it seriously.

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 Considers Confederate Traitors to Be ‘Revered’ American Leaders

Posted by on August 20, 2017 at 3:59 pm. 1 Comments :

It’s been five days since Donald Trump fell off the crazy train into the abyss of neo-Nazi advocacy. His press conference last Tuesday will be remembered as a tribute to the white supremacists that helped to elect him. To this day they comprise a significant segment of his remaining support. And despite the widespread criticism he’s received, Trump clings to his abhorrent views.

Fox News Jesse Watters

Naturally, Fox News continues to shill for the President. They have staunchly defended the most heinous comments that flow from his diseased psyche. Somehow they have managed to justify his admissions of sexual assault, his insults to veterans, his unsavory connections to Russia, and his glaring ignorance of every subject he addresses. So it isn’t surprising that they find cause to agree with his unimaginable covenant with treasonous Americans.

The debate over the preservation of statues commemorating Confederate traitors has taken center stage at Fox News. But they are intellectually incapable of grasping the simplest concepts. They complain that moving these offensive monuments to museums will result in the abolition of history. Since when do people learn history from lumps of bronze in the park? Statues are not historical lessons, they are tributes. We have no statues of Hitler, yet most Americans have a pretty good idea of who he was and what he represented. And anyone interested in the Civil War can find plenty of information at the library.

Undeterred by that common sense, Fox News ignoramus Jesse Watters stared into his camera Sunday night and literally perverted history. He regurgitated a favorite canard of conservative white-wingers who lie shamelessly about America’s past:

“Let’s also remember that all of these Confederate war heroes were Democrats. Democrats were the party of slavery. Maybe the Democrats want to tear down these statues so the country forgets that the Democratic Party enslaved black people. But I actually think that many on the left want to destroy any monument of revered historical American leaders.”

There is so much wrong with that brief mental flatulence that it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with his bastardization of history. Most people with a high school diploma know that Southern Democrats did dominate the Confederacy. They rejected the Republican politics of Abraham Lincoln who led the nation in a war against the slave states. But that affiliation flipped in the twentieth century as Democrats became the party of working Americans. That includes African Americans. President Johnson cast the remaining bigots out of the Democratic Party when he signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. From that point on, the Southern racists abandoned the Democrats and took up with Republicans who were happy to preserve Jim Crow laws, segregation, and white rule.

Consequently, it’s a lie of omission to refer to Democrats as “the party of slavery.” And it’s readily apparent where the bigots reside today politically. The Republican Party is currently the home of the KKK, the neo-Nazis, the alt-right, and all the other groups with deceptive labels attached to institutional racism. Just ask former KKK Imperial Wizard, David Duke, or white Nationalist Richard Spencer. Both are fervent Trump supporters. The claim made by Watters is only valid if you deliberately ignore the past hundred hundred years and today’s reality.

Then Watters made the flagrantly idiotic claim that Democrats want to tear down the Confederate statues so the country forgets their role in slavery. That makes no sense at all. You don’t make people forget something by turning it into a raging controversy. What’s more, Democrats are openly condemning slavery and everyone who participated in it. And it’s Republicans who are insisting that the statues remain. The GOP is not asking to keep the statues to remind people of the Democrats’ past. They want to keep them as tributes to the slave states and the traitors who fought for them. That’s a fact that Watters has conveniently glanced past.

Finally, Watters admits that, in his view, the traitors of the Confederacy are “revered historical American leaders.” Now he is not mincing words. His theory is that Democrats want to suppress these treasonous cretins that he believes ought to be celebrated. So Watters has revealed his true feelings and his unpatriotic obsession with the people who fought to divide America.

This is what passes for journalism on Fox News. And it’s consistent with the network’s mission to advance Republican politics. All of their primetime hosts (Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, The Five) have articulated the same themes. They truly believe that these Confederate statues provide deserved praise to “honorable” Americans. And if they regard Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as honorable, what are they looking for in a leader today? Of course the disturbing answer to that is that they have already found what they’re looking for. And he is presently residing in the White House.

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


Stupid Trump Tweets: Bringing America to Heel?

Posted by on August 19, 2017 at 3:44 pm. 1 Comments :

Well, Donald Trump has just accidentally (?) revealed what he really wants to do to America. His authoritarian tendencies have been known to many for a long time. But he rarely expresses them in explicit terms. In a couple of tweets on Saturday he did just that.

Donald Trump Twitter Birds

After two pathetic attempts, Trump finally got out a message that was a peculiar praise of protesting. Seeing as how he has been condemning protesters all week (and really for a couple of years), it made little sense. It appears to be a desperate attempt to salvage his floundering presidency with an insincere advocacy of free speech. This is what he said:

What’s important about this is that it took him three tries to get there. The first tweets that went out were deleted. Presumably for misspellings. But he repeated the same mistakes in both of the deleted tweets. The last one he deleted said:

“Our great country has been divided for decades. Sometimes you need protest in order to heel, & we will heel, & be stronger than ever before!”

“In order to HEEL?” Of course. Trump wants to bring his critics to heel. He wants to force minorities and Muslims and women to heel. This is the sort of Freudian slip that exposes one’s true intentions. And the fact that he left it up for thirteen minutes speaks to his lack of concern for correcting the record. And following that series of blunders, Trump also tweeted this:

Seriously? All of sudden he expects us to believe that he appreciates people who are protesting bigotry and hate. A couple of days ago they were no better than the Nazis that marched in Charlottesville and killed Heather Heyer. But something that Trump is missing here is that these protests are not just against hate, they are against him. In effect he is applauding the thousands of people marching in opposition to his presidency.

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

This is the caliber of president who we have to rely on to bring America together? He can’t get the simplest communications right. And his bastardization of language just makes things much worse. Yet this is who we have to depend on to negotiate treaties with hostile foreign nations. He is supposed to be proposing international trade deals. And how on Earth can this imbecile help to draft legislation reforming healthcare and taxes. Never mind all of the decidedly evil parts of his agenda such as voter suppression and climate change. In other words, we are in big fucking trouble.


How Toxic is Donald Trump? He Can’t Even Show His Face at the Kennedy Center Honors

Posted by on August 19, 2017 at 1:21 pm. 1 Comments :

America is currently suffering through a presidency that has severely lowered the bar for respect and dignity. Donald Trump once promised that he could be “more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.” For some reason he exempted Lincoln, but not Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, or even Reagan. But he has failed to live up to that promise. In fact, he has made a mockery of the office and embarrassed the country before the whole world.

Donald Trump

The shame with which Trump has tarred the nation extends beyond the boundaries of partisanship. A few Republicans are starting to tip-toe into direct criticism of the President. Albeit, they often can’t bring themselves to say his name. What’s more, Trump disbanded several of his advisory committees to staunch the flood of members resigning. Even worse (from Trump’s greedy perspective), charities and other organizations that have held events at his Mar-A-Lago resort are moving or canceling those events. To date sixteen have disassociated themselves from the Trump taint.

Now another indicator of just how toxic that association is has come to light. The annual Kennedy Center Honors will be held in Washington, D.C. in December. It’s an event that regularly features the participation of the President. However, this year several honorees have already stated that they would not attend the White House reception for the event. As that list grew longer the White House issued the following statement:

“The President and First Lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction. First Lady Melania Trump, along with her husband President Donald J. Trump, extend their sincerest congratulations and well wishes to all of this year’s award recipients for their many accomplishments.”

This is another case of Trump quitting something after he had already been rebuked and cast aside. His gargantuan ego needs to portray it as his idea to skip a party that no one wants him at. Earlier this year he ducked out of the White House Correspondents Dinner. He was the first presidential no-show in over thirty years. This is the Kennedy Center’s fortieth year, and only three times without a president in attendance. They usually had good reasons. For instance, Carter missed one year due to the Iranian hostage crisis.

Additionally, Trump’s excuse of avoiding a “political distraction” is absurd. If that were really his objective he would resign. Pretty much everywhere he goes he’s a political distraction. That’s why the only public events he attends are usually White House managed photo-ops or his campaign rallies. He doesn’t even allow the press at his golf resorts when he’s on vacation, which is most of the time.

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

So the Kennedy Center Honors will go on as scheduled with a distinguished group of honorees. Carmen de Lavallade, Gloria Estefan, LL COOL J, Norman Lear, and Lionel Richie, are all now expected to attend. And Trump’s absence will only make the affair more enjoyable and dignified. But the fact that the President of the United States is so obviously unwelcome at such a proud and non-political event just highlights the sad state of affairs that our nation is enduring. Donald Trump is too loathsome to even be in the audience. And recent polls that put him at a mere thirty-four percent approval rating (the lowest ever for a president at this point) show that the nation is just as repulsed.

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Donald Trump is Still the White Supremacist-in-Chief, Bannon/Breitbart Wing Declares War

Posted by on August 18, 2017 at 2:33 pm. 4 Comments :

TGIF: Donald Trump has had a disastrous week (again). He spent much of it taking the side of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia. He’s suffered an exodus of supporters and resignations from his advisory councils. Even conservative Republican allies in Congress are questioning his stability and competence. And to top it off he has just jettisoned his Chief Strategist and ideological mentor, Steve Bannon.

Trump Bannon

Make no mistake, this is not a transitional moment for Trump. He isn’t pivoting to become more presidential. He doesn’t have the foggiest notion of what that even means. The banishing of Bannon had nothing to do with his overtly racist views or his bragging about being the voice of the alt-right. Bannon was kicked out of the White House because a recent interview with the American Prospect pissed the President off. In it Bannon diminished Trump and took credit for what he regards as accomplishments. Trump’s ego could not abide that.

For the record, Trump’s first seven months in office has undergone unprecedented turmoil. Here are just a few of the positions that have already turnover: Michael Flynn, National Security Advisor; James Comey, FBI; Sean Spicer, Press Secretary; Michael Dubke, Communications Director; Anthony Scaramucci, Communications Director; Reince Priebus, Chief of Staff; John Kelly, Homeland Security Secretary; Steve Bannon, Chief Strategist.

So what happens now? First of all, nothing changes at the White House. Trump will retain the mantle of the radical extremist he has adopted since entering politics. His administration is lousy with like minds. Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway, Jeff Sessions, etc., will continue to advance their right-wing bigotry. This is the house that Trump built and it’s still running on his repugnant fumes. As they say, the fishy stink (of racism) emanates from the head.

But Bannon’s future is much more interesting. Sources say that he will be heading back to his previous post as chairman of Breitbart News. He has been seen meeting recently with the billionaire Mercer family who bankroll the website. It’s fair to assume that he’s seeking additional funding. And upon his return he may have something to say about his tenure at the White House and his humiliating ouster. Gabriel Sherman of New York Magazine has been watching these events closely. He tweeted this following the news of Bannon’s exit:

That prediction has already been confirmed by Joel Pollak, senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News. Pollak posted a one-word tweet that said simply “#WAR” With Bannon back in charge, Breitbart is likely to begin an offensive blitz on Trump, his family, and his inner circle. He has no history of placing loyalty over ideology. And the ideology to which he adheres is one of alt-right jihadism.

Look for the GOP extremists to fall in line behind Bannon. They will accuse Trump of caving in to the globalists and becoming just another mainstream RINO. As if he were ever a real Republican in the first place. And this opposition will trigger Trump’s knee-jerk defensiveness and whiny victimhood. What did they expect? He lied his way to the White House and the alt-rightists tolerated it because they they thought they could control him. The same is true for the evangelicals that betrayed their faith in order to back Trump.

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

Now they are all learning the hard way what Democrats and liberals warned them about. Trump is a malignant narcissist who can’t be trusted. He is only in this for himself. Anything that gratifies his ego or fattens his wallet will gain his support. Criticism or inquiries into his corrupt finances will draw his ire. Which makes this a good time to remember that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, is still hard at work. The end of this road for Trump is humiliation and defeat. He will either resign in disgrace or be impeached and prosecuted. And perhaps, if justice prevails, both.


In the Wake of Terror in Barcelona, Trump Repeats 6 Month Old Pants on Fire Lie

Posted by on August 17, 2017 at 4:05 pm. 2 Comments :

Thursday afternoon the world was stunned by another terrorist attack on innocent civilians. This one took place on a popular street in the heart of Barcelona, Spain. Authorities are still investigating the circumstances and possible suspects. At this time there appear to be twelve fatalities and dozens more injured.

Donald Trump

Compounding this tragedy is the callousness of America’s pathologically dishonest president, Donald Trump. Shortly after the news broke, Trump rushed to the situation room – scratch that – to his cell phone to comment on Twitter:

This tweet was posted without the slightest bit of irony in recognition of the events of the past week. It took him only a couple of hours to publicly declare this unfolding incident a terror attack. Contrast that with the two days it took for him to condemn the white supremacist perpetrators of terrorism in Charlottesville. Does he care more about the victims in Spain than does about those in the United States? Or do white terrorists get a pass from Trump? And what about his insistence that “Before I make a statement, I need the facts. So I don’t want to rush into a statement.” That was his excuse for not speaking out sooner about the murder of Heather Heyer. But today facts seem to have gone out of favor in this White House.

To make matters worse, Trump’s cell phone fingers were still twitchy. Only forty-five minutes later he posted another tweet:

Trump is offering good advice by encouraging people to study. He ought to take that advice himself. Because the incident he’s alluding to never happened. It concerns a hoax that General Pershing had dissuaded Muslim opponents in the Philippines by executing them and burying their bodies with dead pigs. This is a lie that Trump has told before. In fact, in February of 2016 he was awarded one of his many “Pants-on-Fire” ratings from PolitiFact. At that time PolitiFact consulted actual historians and concluded that the incident Trump describe never took place:

“Of the eight historians we checked with, all were at least skeptical that what Trump said actually happened, and some expressed disbelief even more forcefully than that. The only evidence of something approximating what Trump said stems from one letter documenting a different scenario written by a veteran more than a half century after the fact.

“Perhaps more important, the historians took issue with Trump’s suggestion that the tactic — if it was even used at all — actually worked to end tensions, noting that unrest persisted for years. In all, Trump’s claim is ridiculous, so we rate it Pants on Fire.”

This is typical of Trump’s deliberate perversion of the truth to suit his own propaganda needs. He seems to have no shame in repeating falsehoods that have been unambiguously debunked by experts. The only thing he cares about is the promotion of his own interests. He is very likely only exploiting the tragedy in Spain to distract from the mess he created here at home. And if keeping his glassy-eyed disciples neck deep in lies is the result, that’s their tough luck. Remember, he loves the poorly educated, and this is one reason why.

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


Profiles in Cowardice: Republicans Are Refusing All Interview Requests to Defend Trump’s Bigotry

Posted by on August 17, 2017 at 1:23 pm. NO Comments :

On Thursday morning Donald Trump tripled down on his support for the Confederacy and the bigotry it fought to preserve. His latest tweetstorm gushed over the “beauty” of the statues of traitors that he says “will be greatly missed.” And he’s right. They will be missed by the white supremacists and racists who have been applauding Trump’s advocacy of their cause.

Shepard Smith Fox News

However, outside of the alt-rightists and Klan members that have rallied around his pro-Nazi remarks, Trump has garnered scant support from his own Republican colleagues. Many have taken to putting out their own condemnations of the violence instigated by bigots in Charlottesville. They include GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Unfortunately, in most cases they merely express opposition to racism without holding their president accountable for exacerbating the hate.

These weakly conveyed messages of tolerance demonstrate the fear that Republicans have of directly countering Trump. They remain committed to his presidency and his agenda. They just can’t bring themselves to utter his name in conjunction with the division he is fomenting.

They also can’t bring themselves to defend him on television. Every cable news network is complaining that their efforts to book Republicans to defend the President are coming up empty. This is an astonishing turn of events. Publicity-hungry politicians are actually declining to appear on TV to promote their party and president. Here are some examples of the media response to this unprecedented situation:

Chuck Todd, MSNBC: We invited every single Republican senator on this program tonight, all 52. We asked roughly a dozen house Republicans including a bunch of committee chairs and we asked a half-dozen officials. And none of them agreed to discuss this issue with us today.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN: We did reach out to Republican leaders throughout the day. They all, at least for now, refused to join us. But the invitation is clearly still very much open.

Shepard Smith, Fox News: Our booking team reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country today. Let’s be honest. Republicans don’t mind coming on Fox News channel. We couldn’t get anyone to come and defend him here. We thought in balance, someone should do that. We worked very hard at it throughout the day. We were unsuccessful.

That’s right. Even Fox News, the PR division of the Republican Party, is unable to convince a single Republican to go on the air to support their leader. They can still book GOP advocates of nuking North Korea or throwing millions of Americans off of their healthcare plans. But asking them to backup the President’s recent cheerleading for neo-Nazis is apparently where they draw the line.

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

It remains to be seen how long they can hold out. Trump is already tweeting attacks on party mates who dare to criticize him. Thursday morning he unleashed his typically infantile insults on Senators Lindsay Graham and Jeff Flake. Expect those Twitter tantrums to continue as Trump’s ultra-sensitive ego is bruised by others disloyal to Dear Leader. Before long the only people willing to defend Trump on TV will be David Duke and Ivanka. And I’m not all that sure about Ivanka.


Morally Bankrupt: Fox & Friends Host Couldn’t Mute These Moving Repudiations of Trump

Posted by on August 16, 2017 at 1:21 pm. NO Comments :

There’s an old saying that offers this common sense advice: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Apparently Donald Trump hasn’t heard that saying. Or maybe he just doesn’t think it applies to people who are perfect and rich and certain of their superiority. Consequently, he continues to dig himself deeper into the cesspool of white supremacy advocacy.

Fox News

On Tuesday Trump held an impromptu press conference that quickly devolved into a nauseating defense of neo-Nazis and the racism embodied by the KKK and other hate groups. He was roundly chastised by Americans from across the political spectrum. Democrats and Republicans alike are distancing themselves from his overt bigotry. A new poll shows that more people believe that Trump supports white nationalism than think that he opposes it. The fallout from his disastrous performance was nearly universal.

One area of respite for the President was, of course Fox News. With virtually every program they aired came a vigorous defense of Trump’s allegedly unyielding love for all mankind. Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson led the way in white-washing his rancid prejudices. At the same time they sought to smear those who oppose the racism espoused by Trump and company. But there were a few moments when real emotions were displayed that better represented the nation’s revulsion of Trump’s bigotry.

On Fox and Friends, co-host Abby Huntsman interviewed Johns Hopkins professor Wendy Osefo and Republican political analyst Gianno Caldwell. Her mission was clearly to guide the discussion into a redemption from Trump’s latest debacle. Prof. Osefo provided an excellent definition of the terms of the debate (video below):

“This is about hatred. It’s about white supremacy. And to have Heather Heyer killed on U.S. soil by a Nazi, Deandre Harris beaten and bludgeoned by Nazis. This is not talking points here. This isn’t partisan. This is human life. And as a mother, to hear the President of these United States not sit here and condemn what has happened. As a black woman of two black boys, my heart bleeds. This is not talking points here. This is personal. And we as a nation, as a country, have to do better.”

Huntsman’s reaction completely ignored this heartfelt plea for Trump to change course. She made a pathetic attempt to steer the conversation back to territory that was advantageous to Trump:

Gianno, to you. Do you agree with that? There are good people on both sides of this debate. We talk about keeping these statues up. People that I talk to say that this is about history. How do we move forward. How do we learn from those mistakes if we just tear everything down?

Huntsman’s pivot included the White House talking points that both sides are to blame and that there are good Nazis. She also revealed the narrow scope of people that she talks to. This isn’t about preserving history, which is well documented in libraries full of historical literature. The people Huntsman talks to actually want to preserve the honoring of traitors. But her other guest wasn’t distracted by this tactic:

“You know, I come today with a very heavy heart. Last night I couldn’t sleep at all because President Trump, our president, has literally betrayed the conscience of our country. The very moral fabric on which we’ve made progress on race relations. He’s failed us. And it’s very unfortunate that our president would say things like he did in that press conference when he said that “There’s good people on the side of the Nazis. They weren’t all Nazis. They weren’t all white supremacists.” Mr. President, good people don’t pal around with Nazis and white supremacists.”

Remember, Caldwell is the Republican on the panel. And he expressed what every decent Republican ought to admit. Republicans in Congress need to renounce Trump’s bigotry and defense of the alt-right white supremacists. His cabinet must demand he reject racism and fire those on his staff who embrace it (Bannon, Gorka, Miller, etc.). Absent that, they must resign themselves.

Caldwell concluded his remarks with a shot aimed directly at Huntsman and Fox News:

“For anyone to come on any network and defend what President Trump did and said at that press conference yesterday is completely lost and potentially morally bankrupt.”

That’s something that all politicians, pundits and journalists need to take seriously. This isn’t about talking points. It’s about human decency. And there aren’t two sides to that.

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