Hillary Clinton Gives Fox News A Sad

Posted by on February 21, 2016 at 8:26 pm. 15 Comments :

Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace made a desperate and public plea to complain that Hillary Clinton has not accepted his invitation to be badgered on his program. Wallace’s disappointment was evident in his closing commentary wherein he whined that…

“We have now sat down with every candidate in the race except Hillary Clinton.” He continued “But, once again this week, Clinton turned down our request for an interview.”

Hillary Clinton

Really? Does Wallace need an explanation for this? Fox News has been a perpetual Clinton-bashing machine for years. They have turned the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya into a serial melodrama that never seems to end. Even though every investigation, including those conducted by Republicans in Congress, has found no wrongdoing by Clinton, President Obama, or any other government official, the obsession to cultivate a narrative that indicts Clinton for imaginary crimes remains in effect. Fox News was so determined to use Benghazi as a smear tactic that when the Republican House Committee to Politicize Benghazi held an eleven hour grilling session with Clinton, Fox News ceased to cover it with four hours still remaining. It was the only cable news network to cut their coverage. As News Corpse noted at the time…

Do you think they would have done that if they thought that Clinton was bombing? Of course not. They were more worried that she looked strong, confident, knowledgeable, and (gasp) presidential. That was something they didn’t want their viewers exposed to, so the decision was made to ditch the live hearings and return to their panel of wingnut pundits on whom they could rely for continued Clinton bashing.

More recently, Fox News has attached itself to the issues surrounding Clinton’s email and her use of a private server (which her Republican predecessors did as well). As with Benghazi, there has never been any evidence of wrongdoing on Clinton’s part despite hundreds of hours of investigations by Congress, the Justice Department, and Fox’s own crack reporting team of muckrakers (or is that reporting team of muckrakers on crack?).

These are just a couple of the fabricated “scandals” that Fox has tried so hard to promote. Others include false allegations against the Clinton Foundation, charges of treason against Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin, baseless suggestions that her health is declining, and numerous pitches for anti-Clinton books by utterly discredited authors. Their mission is to deliberately report anything they consider bad news for Clinton, even if it isn’t.

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

Fox News is a hyper-spin operation for slanderous Hillary Clinton stories. In light of that, why would Wallace be surprised by Clinton’s reluctance to sit down with him? Clinton is doing exactly the right thing. There is no reason why she should reward Fox for its atrocious and biased behavior. When Fox cuts away from their regular programming to air Clinton’s campaign rallies live, like they do for Donald Trump, then she might think about reconsidering.

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Who Is Donald Trump Boycotting Now? The List Keeps Growing

Posted by on February 20, 2016 at 3:01 pm. 7 Comments :

The controversy over whether or not Apple should enable the FBI to crack the security of the iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino shooter has spilled over into the presidential race. It’s a complicated debate that is only trivialized by the shallowness of a political campaign. And leave it to Donald Trump to lead the pack in reducing the intellectual coherence of the issue.

Donald Trump

Trump’s contribution to the dialog consisted mainly of a faux-macho declaration that he would dump Apple products if they didn’t capitulate to the demands of the Justice Department. As a threat, that carries about the same weight as his complaints about manufacturers moving their operations to other countries. He still has his clothing lines and other branded merchandise made in China and Mexico, so don’t expect him to stop using his iPhone for his midnight tweets.

What’s more, it goes against the grain of his allegedly anti-establishment campaign theme to side with the feds who want to force private businesses to comply with their demands. Trump’s history of siding with big government against free enterprise is evident in his support of eminent domain and his recent tantrum where he told companies with off-shore facilities to “fuck off.”

Now, to go along with his rabid string of lawsuits, Trump is also pushing boycotts against an ever expanding group of evil American businesses. Apple is just the latest villain to irk The Donald. Here are some of the others:

  • Macy’s – for having the gall to disassociate with Trump after he maligned Latinos.
  • Ford – for building a plant in Mexico.
  • Oreos – for joining Ford south of the border.
  • Starbucks – for failing to celebrate Christmas with reindeer on their cups.
  • Univision – for reporting fairly on issues that affect Latino-Americans.
  • HBO – for not firing Bill Maher after he criticized Trump.
  • Rolling Stone Magazine – for putting a photo of the Boston Marathon bomber on the cover.
  • Mexico – for letting El Chapo escape. Also – for arresting a U.S. Marine who entered the country illegally with weapons.
  • And my personal favorite: Fox News – for their alleged unfairness to him, despite having birthed his campaign and giving him far more airtime than any other candidate.

The sheer quantity of boycotts and lawsuits that Trump engages in is further proof that his antagonism and belligerence makes him utterly unfit to hold an office that requires thoughtful analysis and diplomacy. He’s a megalomaniac bully who resorts to hostile tactics to achieve his goals. Imagine that sort of personality with access to armies and nuclear weapons.

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


Is Tea Party Godfather Charles Koch Feeling The Bern?

Posted by on February 19, 2016 at 4:09 pm. 2 Comments :

The Washington Post (you know, that bastion of the so-called “liberal” media) just published an op-ed by Charles Koch of the infamous Koch brothers. The headline declared that “This is the one issue where Bernie Sanders is right.” While that’s a fairly generous admission, it is hardly representative of Koch’s actual worldview.

Koch Brothers Bernie Sanders

Koch begins his article by acknowledging the obvious – that he and Sanders “disagree on plenty when it comes to public policy.” Then he disingenuously asserts that he sees benefits in searching for common ground and greater civility.” That’s a bit difficult to believe coming from someone who has spent years bankrolling Teabaggers, the most uncivil movement of rightist malcontents in decades. Nevertheless, Koch sought to align himself with part of the Sanders platform of income inequality:

“The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.”

While criticizing policies of both parties that “helps perpetuate a cycle of control,” Koch also took the opportunity to lash out at the regulations that have been a staple of his anti-government agenda. And he remains opposed to the sort of reforms that make it possible for people rise out of poverty (i.e. ObamaCare, unions, increasing the minimum wage, non-discrimination in employment, parental leave, etc.).

Despite the facade of a conciliatory partner in advancing the interests of all Americans, Charles Koch and his brother David are devoted to the fraternity of the one-percent to which they belong. They enjoy the fruits of income inequality. They are ardent foes of environmental protection and programs to mitigate climate change. Even worse, they would abolish the EPA, even while their businesses are among the worst toxic polluters in the nation. They favor privatizing Social Security and Medicare. They create media front groups to spread right-wing propaganda. And they are the biggest supporters and beneficiaries of Citizens United.

In addition to all of the above, the Koch brothers virtually created the Tea Party. Groups like FreedomWatch and Americans for Prosperity are nothing more than surrogates for the disgruntled goofballs who dress up in tri-corner hats and carry racist signs with pictures of President Obama as a witch doctor. The Koch brothers have invested multi-millions of dollars in the Tea Party in an attempt to crush Democrats and replace them with the sort of hard-line, right-wing extremists that have produced gridlock in Congress. They lust for shutdowns of government even if it means sinking the economy or denying healthcare for 9/11 first-responders.

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

This article is just another component of their campaign to rehabilitate their public image, cleverly referred to as “The New Koch” by Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. But, they are just as committed to their wingnut agenda as ever. They announced that they will spend nearly a billion dollars in the 2016 election cycle in support of conservative Republicans who promise to dismantle the government, leaving them free to pollute the planet and plunder the economy. So don’t let this faux Valantine to Bernie Sanders fool you. The Koch brothers are what they have always been: John Birch Society Libertarians with strong Ayn Rand leanings.


Rupert Murdoch Rips Crybaby Donald Trump’s Crackpot Polling Conspiracy

Posted by on February 18, 2016 at 7:55 pm. 3 Comments :

Proving once again how thin-skinned and paranoid Donald Trump is, he flipped out after learning that a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed him trailing Ted Cruz nationally by two points. His bloated ego wouldn’t allow him to accept the possibility that his horrendous behavior at the last Republican debate might have caused his numbers to slip.

Donald Trump Rupert Murdoch

So rather than face reality and get back to work, Trump attacked the Wall Street Journal and Fox News (for some unexplained reason he let NBC slide). Trump was interviewed by Breitbart News where he asserted that the poll was fixed and that “It was a Rupert Murdoch hit.” He further claimed that “The worst treatment I get is from Fox,” despite the fact that he gets far more airtime than any other candidate. Trump was also interviewed for a full hour on MSNBC (a disgraceful affair, but that’s another story), and told the sycophantic plant life known as Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, that…

“I think somebody at the Wall Street Journal doesn’t like me, but I never do well with the Wall Street Journal poll. So I don’t know.”

Clearly he doesn’t know. Or more likely he’s lying (see the Trump Bullshitopedia). Because a quick look at the facts show that the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has been reliably favorable to Trump. Prior to this new poll they had him leading in all but one poll since he announced his candidacy. It is typical of Trump, however, to swing wildly when wounded. Therefore, this record of his polling, wherein he topped five of six polls, is regarded by him as “never doing well.”

trump-wsj-polls

But Trump wasn’t finished. He continued his Twitter tirade to blast Fox News saying that “@FoxNews is so biased it is disgusting. They do not want Trump to win. All negative!” and that “.@FoxNews is changing their theme from ‘fair and balanced’ to ‘unfair and unbalanced.'” These would be reasonable complaints about Fox News except for the fact that Trump is utterly delusional. He has been the foremost beneficiary of the biases practiced at Fox.

After hearing Trump’s butt-hurt ranting, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of the media empire that includes both Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, had a bit of advice for the hyperventilating Trump. Murdoch tweeted…

“Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down. If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!”

It’s hard to disagree with Murdoch on this one. It’s obvious that his media properties have not been plotting anti-Trump campaigns. However, what Murdoch left out is that his outlets are responsible for creating Trumpenstein in the first place. Fox was not only not anti-Trump, they were so pro-Trump it was nauseating to watch. Now that Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and company, have reanimated the beast, they are begging it to “calm down.” Good luck with that, Rupe. You’ve made your cult, now you have to “lie” with it.

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


Is Donald Trump Suffering From Delusional Senile Dementia?

Posted by on February 17, 2016 at 3:53 pm. 3 Comments :

Watching the very public meltdown of Donald Trump over the past few months could serve as a useful tool for academic research into dementia and brain disease. When looking objectively at the symptoms commonly associated with dementia it is hard not to consider Trump a likely candidate for such a diagnosis. What follows is an exploration of the three most prominent symptoms of dementia and their relationship to Trump’s behavior.

Donald Trump Lizard

Impaired judgment

From the very beginning of his of campaign for the Republican nomination for president, Trump engaged in outbursts that were hostile and irrational. His assertion that the immigrant population in the U.S. was the result of Mexico sending over rapists and murderers was untethered to reality. And that was just the first day. Trump went on to disparage Sen. John McCain, saying that he was not a war hero; he charged that Megyn Kelly’s questions during a Fox News debate were unfair because she was menstruating; he proposed a ban on all Muslims from entering the country; he had a prominent Latino journalist ejected from his rally; he told a reporter that he isn’t bothered by comparisons to Hitler; and most recently he has been threatening to sue Ted Cruz in order to challenge his citizenship and eligibility to serve as president.

Trump’s birtherism with regard to President Obama is another illustration of a severe mental failing. There has never been a single bit of information that showed anything other than that Obama was born in the U.S. to a U.S. citizen. Nevertheless, Trump continues to doubt the truth of this. A few years ago he claimed to have sent investigators to Hawaii and that what they found was amazing. He has since refused to reveal what they found, or even to discuss it.

These are all examples of behavior that is inconsistent with rational judgment. They have no basis in fact and cannot be portrayed as constructive methods of expressing oneself. Those who would argue that Trump’s showing in the polls validates his conduct are missing the point. Regardless of the result, these actions are not indicative of a rational mind. While it’s true that Trump has attracted a following, the same was true for Charles Manson and Jim Jones and Sarah Palin, yet no one could plausibly argue that their judgment was unimpaired.

And speaking of Sarah Palin, who has endorsed Trump — Is she writing his speeches now?

Loss of Memory

Trump has frequently bragged that he has“one of the best memories of all time.” However, that boast has been utterly demolished by his own words and actions. One notable example was his insistence that he had seen television reporting of “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrating the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. That was an invented memory because there is no evidence that it occurred, despite the fact that television footage of such an event would be easily retrievable.

Trump’s memory was also noticeably deficient when he recently began hammering Ted Cruz as a “nasty guy” and “the single biggest liar” he ever met. Just three months ago he was lauding Cruz and floating him as a possible VP pick. Similarly he once praised Hillary Clinton as a “terrific” woman and a great Secretary of State. Now he is saying that she was the “worst Secretary of State in history.” And as for President Obama, today Trump tweeted that he is “perhaps the worst president in U.S. history.” But this is what he wrote in his book “Think Like A Champion:”

“What he has done is amazing. The fact that he accomplished what he has—in one year and against great odds—is truly phenomenal.” […]

“Barack Obama proved that determination combined with opportunity and intelligence can make things happen—and in an exceptional way.” […]

“His comments have led me to believe that he understands how the economy works on a comprehensive level. He has also surrounded himself with very competent people, and that’s the mark of a strong leader.” […]

“He’s totally a champion.”

Donald Trump Barack Obama

Clearly Trump has either a failing memory or mental blocks that render his memory unreliable. Many other examples exist. For instance, he said he couldn’t remember a disabled reporter that he disgustingly mocked, but they had met many times; he threatened to sue Cruz three days after he promised that he never would; he complained that the media never reported a comment by Jeb Bush and seconds later, after Bush denied the charge, Trump defended himself by saying that the news reported it ten times.

Childish Behavior

This is perhaps the symptom least in need of elaboration, but here goes anyway. Trump is the most juvenile presidential candidate in this nation’s history. He lashes out with infantile insults about people’s looks and character. If he is criticized he will punch back with baseless, often unrelated, rebuttals. And that’s when he isn’t throwing tantrums like when he ditched the Fox News debate. Everyone who doesn’t exhibit unrestrained adoration is an enemy who is out to destroy him.

Trump has the ego of a four year old who believes the world revolves around him. The parts of his campaign stump speeches that aren’t attacks on his rivals are comprised primarily of bragging about how great he is at everything and how high his poll numbers are. The rest of his rhetoric, when put through the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, scored at the third grade level. Of course, that’s probably still somewhat higher than most of his Tea-vangelical supporters.

When all of this is taken into account, it seems obvious that there is a problem here that requires attention. Every day Trump validates the notion that he is mentally challenged and unfit to perform the duties of the president. His immature outbursts, his brazen narcissism, and his faulty cognition, are all indications of senility. And if any further proof were needed, take a look at this animated recreation of Trump on the campaign trail:

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


Fox News Anchor Attacks Student’s Freedom Of Speech As “Repulsive”

Posted by on February 16, 2016 at 4:08 pm. 9 Comments :

Todd Starnes is the resident Fox News televangelist and Christaria Law proponent. As the host of Fox’s American Dispatch he devotes nearly every segment to some perceived blasphemy on the part of government, schools, or businesses. He is convinced that the huge majority of American Christians are being oppressed and are at risk of losing all of their rights. He sees conspiracies in popular culture to rob good Christians of rewards to which they are entitled. And he preaches a twisted gospel that casts Jesus as an ass-kicking warrior.

Todd Starnes

The latest episode of the Starnes Stories concerns a photo that was posted on Facebook showing a high school kid standing on an American flag. The story came from the Education Action Group, a right-wing organization that is funded by the Koch brothers and has a rotten record for honesty. Starnes posted an article on Fox News reporting that “Teen’s flag-stomp stunt at HS spurs investigation.” That act of disrespect was castigated as “repulsive” and “detestable” by Starnes. In his highly biased presentation of the facts he said that…

“The repulsive photograph, reportedly posted online over the Valentine’s Day weekend, shows a young man standing on Old Glory as a female student stands nearby with her middle finger raised.”

Setting aside that fact that there was nothing to investigate, the incident would have been forgotten had it stopped there. It would have been nothing more than an ordinary expression of opinion, to which Starnes is entitled. However, the article went on to hail the school administration for coming out strongly against this student’s extracurricular activity.

“The district solicitor posted a message online promising a ‘timely and thorough review of this incident and will implement appropriate legal discipline.’ They called the photo ‘unfortunate and unpatriotic.'”

Starnes was thrilled that there would be legal consequences for the student’s outrageous behavior. The only problem is, he didn’t break any law. The Supreme Court has ruled that the flag can be used as an instrument of expression. Despite the hurt feelings of patriopathic zealots, it would be unlawful to constrain speech merely because it involved the flag. According to Starnes, however, this treasonous tot should be forced to undergo some sort of punishment. And when the ACLU was asked to comment on the affair, their answer only enraged Starnes further. He wrote that…

“The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem with desecrating Old Glory.”

‘As long as they were trying to send a message of protest, it sounds like they are protected to me,’ legal director Witold Walczak told the Tribune Democrat.

“The ACLU enjoys nothing better than an old-fashioned American flag burning.”

Actually, the ACLU enjoys nothing better than old-fashioned freedom of speech. And as has been observed in events like this since the founding of the nation, it is primarily speech that some people find offensive that is most in need of protection. After all, no one is trying to censor speech that everyone likes.

In addition to Starnes demonstrating an aversion to the First Amendment, he is also affirming the blatant hypocrisy of conservatives like himself on Fox News and elsewhere. For some reason he never bothered to complain when George W. Bush and his wife Laura stomped on an American flag. Nor did it disturb his tender sensitivities when Fox News paid tribute to flag desecration on the 4th of July. And while putting Obama’s face on flag was considered a disgrace, there was no such anger when the Tea Party did it. Clearly flag desecration is permitted when the offender is a conservative, but reviled otherwise.

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

Starnes has developed a reputation as a dishonest purveyor of religious propaganda. That’s surely how he got his job at Fox News. One particularly grievous example of his lack of principles was the time he reported on a five year old girl whose father claimed she was prohibited from praying in her school’s cafeteria. There was never any evidence that this happened and it was later discovered that the girl’s father was the VP of Sales for his publisher (which he never disclosed) and he had a book that was just about to be released on this very subject. The whole thing was apparently a lie concocted to sell his book. And that’s not an uncommon modus operandi at Fox News where virtually every anchor is hawking their books.

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Donald Trump Moves Closer To A Third (Reich) Party Campaign

Posted by on February 15, 2016 at 7:16 pm. 2 Comments :

The overgrown crybaby Donald Trump has unleashed yet another tirade of the ego-soaked entitlement that defines his personality and presidential campaign. At a press conference scheduled for damage control following his embarrassingly brutish performance at the CBS News GOP debate, Trump revisited his previous threats to violate his loyalty pledge to the Republican Party.

Donald Trump

At issue this time is Trump’s accusation that the Republican National Committee conspired to embarrass him by packing the debate audience with lobbyists and donors to his rivals’ campaigns. He whined that the crowd, which booed him several times, was deliberately chosen to be hostile to him. And he wasn’t sitting still for it. He warned that “The RNC better get its act together,” lest they risk the onslaught of his vengeful wrath. Then he got specific about the consequences of offending him:

“I signed a pledge. But the pledge isn’t being honored by them. I signed a pledge. The pledge isn’t being honored by the RNC. Because those tickets were all special-interest people. […] The RNC does a terrible job — a terrible job. And just remember what I said — remember in this room — I signed a pledge. But it’s a double-edged pledge. And as far as I’m concerned, they’re in default of their pledge when they do that.”

He seems to be saying that he signed a pledge. [Has anyone else noticed how much he repeats himself?] Here’s the thing – despite Trump’s characterization, there were no conditions attached to the pledge. It was simply a promise to “endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, regardless of who it is” and “not seek to run as an independent.” The pledge was implemented to prevent Trump from taking advantage of the RNC’s auspices, particularly the debate schedule, and then bolting to run against them.

It appears at this point that the RNC was foolish to have trusted him. They refuted his accusations about the audience composition saying that “Each candidate received 100 tickets.” But Trump expanded on his conspiracy theory to baselessly suggest that college students who received tickets sold them to anti-Trump lobbyists. So we can now officially add paranoia to Trump’s diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And if the charge of packing the audience isn’t enough, Trump is also warning the RNC that they had better support his birther complaints against Ted Cruz:

“One of the ways I can fight back is to bring a lawsuit against him relative to the fact that he was born in Canada and therefore cannot be President. If he doesn’t take down his false ads and retract his lies, I will do so immediately. Additionally, the RNC should intervene and if they don’t they are in default of their pledge to me.”

This isn’t the first time since signing the pledge that Trump has threatened to violate it. He was asked last November by George Stephanopoulos if he still intended to honor the pledge and he answered “I’m going to have to see what happens. I will see what happens. I have to be treated fairly.” It is becoming increasingly clear that Trump’s word is worthless. If the RNC continues to have faith in him they are setting themselves up for betrayal. The only loyalty Trump has is to himself.

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

In addition to Trump’s repeated threats to double-cross his supposed GOP allies, There seems little likelihood that Trump would support them if he is not the nominee. How could he profess to support people that he has castigated so viciously as liars, losers, and weaklings. Via his crushing and childish insults he has dug himself a hole so deep that it would be absurd to later pretend to respect any of the other other candidates. And they would likely spurn his endorsement, were he to offer one. So the pledge that was signed last year by the whole GOP field is a sad joke that has no value. How appropriate for the Republican Party.


The Three Dumbest Moments From The Republican’s Kindergarten Debate

Posted by on February 14, 2016 at 7:12 pm. 2 Comments :

Last night’s debate on CBS showcased a Republican Party that is jam-packed with whimpering, infantile candidates who are wholly unprepared to dress their dollies, much less lead a nation. It’s hard to imagine that, after watching that spectacle, anyone can picture any of these colicky brats with America’s nuclear missile launch codes.

bawlapalooza

If you have a strong stomach you can go watch the whole debate on YouTube, but what will be presented here is a representative sampling of the frightening stupidity that is exhibited by what the GOP believes are its shining lights – the banner carriers of their Party’s mission. These examples are not snippets of the policy or vision that the candidates are pitching. For the most part they simply repeated the same old right-wing claptrap that they have been spewing for years. What you will see here is more of a demonstration of how dysfunctional their underdeveloped brains are, and how useless they would be in a crisis. In reverse order…

#3 – Dr. Ben Carson

Carson was asked this question about the President’s responsibilities in the event of a Supreme Court vacancy: “You’ve written a book on the constitution recently. What does the constitution say about whose duty it is here to act in this kind of a situation?” Carson’s response was…

“Well, the current constitution actually doesn’t address that particular situation, but the fact of the matter is the Supreme Court, obviously, is a very important part of our governmental system.”

Actually, the fact of the matter is that the Constitution explicitly addresses this particular situation. It says that the President “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,” to nominate Judges of the supreme Court. There is nothing ambiguous about this granting of executive authority. Now, it’s pretty dumb to not understand something as basic as this, but Carson compounded his idiocy by making an unrelated observation:

“And, when our constitution was put in place, the average age of death was under 50, and therefore the whole concept of lifetime appointments for Supreme Court judges, and federal judges was not considered to be a big deal.”

OK, there are actually some good reasons to revisit the lifetime appointments clause of the Constitution, but Carson’s ramblings don’t mention any of them. A quick glance at the history books informs us that the first Supreme Court justices did not have some sort of neanderthal lifespan that made such an appointment reasonable. The first Court’s members, and their ages on death, were Chief Justice, John Jay (83) and Associate Justices: William Cushing (78), John Blair (69), John Rutledge (60), James Wilson (55), and James Iredell (48). So two of the four passed away fairly young, but the rest were pretty hardy. Judge Jay outlived Antonin Scalia by four years. This lapse of easily obtainable knowledge is not surprising for someone who rejects evolution and thinks that the pyramids in Egypt were built to store grain.

#2 – Marco Rubio

During an argument about the record of former President George W. Bush, Donald Trump laid responsibility for 9/11 at Jeb’s brother’s feet. That’s actually a fair criticism, even though Trump lied about his opposition to the Iraq war that followed. But Rubio defended Bush by shouting defiantly that “The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him.”

Actually, Bill Clinton did take actions against Bin Laden that were unsuccessful. And for his trouble he was bitterly castigated by Republicans in Congress who cooked up a conspiracy theory that Clinton was using the attacks as a distraction. What’s more, Bush was unable to capture or kill Bin Laden after nearly eight years and with the full force of a military wartime engagement, including tens of thousands of soldiers in Afghanistan. In light of that, it seems rather absurd to complain that Clinton didn’t succeed when he did not have Congress’ authorization for war and Bin Laden had not proven to be a significant threat to the U.S. at the time. Rubio’s assertion was merely a lame attempt to lash out a Democrat in order to absolve his hero, Bush, of responsibility.

#1 – Donald Trump

Is anyone shocked that Trump took the gold in this competition of idiocy? He could have done it easily by sticking to his standard toolkit of lies (see the Trump Bullshitopedia), many of which he used in this debate. For instance, he claimed that he didn’t support Planned Parenthood, that he didn’t file for bankruptcy (4 times), that he didn’t use eminent domain to try to evict an elderly woman for his casino parking lot, and that he opposed the Iraq war “loud and strong.” All lies.

But Trump served up this morsel of nitwittedness during an exchange about his use of profanity. In his own defense he sought to attack Jeb Bush saying…

“Two days ago he said he would take his pants off and moon everybody, and that’s fine. Nobody reports that.”

First of all, Trump is completely misrepresenting what Bush said. Bush was making a rhetorical point about how hard it is for him to get the attention of the press. The “mooning” comment was just a joking example of what he might have to do. And he said it to a reporter. Trump implied that Bush was making a literal threat to expose himself.

Now that was pretty dumb all by itself, and it certainly didn’t excuse Trump’s much more blatant obscenities. But Trump wasn’t through. After Bush denied Trump’s charge, Trump insisted that “You did say it. Been reported in 10 different news…” Well, if it was reported 10 times, then how does Trump explain his initial charge that “Nobody reports that?” In the span of a few seconds, Trump managed to expose himself as a liar.

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

Conclusion

If this is representative of the best that the Republican Party has to offer, it is a party that is in deep trouble. The rest of the field may not have made this list, but they are no less deserving. Ted Cruz is becoming the Nixon of the Tea Party set with his dirty campaign tricks. Jeb Bush doesn’t seem to have any reason for running other than that his father and brother did before him. And John Kasich thinks he can sell his “moderate” appeal to Republicans who have fallen off the deep end of the John Birch Society pier. And all of them acted as if they hadn’t reached puberty yet. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for November.


The Death Of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Is Instantly Politicized By Callous Republicans

Posted by on February 13, 2016 at 4:56 pm. 6 Comments :

The sudden and unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has produced a flurry of reactions from across the political spectrum. Everyone offering a comment has begun with praise for his public service and intellect, and expressions of condolences for his family.

Antonin Scalia

Unfortunately, Republicans have wasted no time in turning this personal tragedy into a political opportunity. GOP presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio (also members of the Senate) added to their sympathies a demand that President Obama refrain from nominating a replacement and leave that to whoever is president in January of 2017. Others, including Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who holds the power to vote or not, have made similar demands. After offering her condolences, Hillary Clinton responded to the GOP by saying that their intention to leave the seat vacant dishonors our Constitution.

There are several problems with the Republican’s overt obstructionism, starting with the fact that it is the constitutional duty of the President to nominate a replacement when there is a vacancy. It would be wholly inappropriate for him to simply ignore that obligation for political purposes. The Senate could refuse to confirm the nominee, or even allow it to come up for a vote. Of course, that would be an abdication of their constitutional duty, but they could do it. The President, however, should not be complicit with that negligence. The Founders intended the Supreme Court to reflect the mood of the nation as represented by the chief executive — not the mood of the nation as represented by the chief executive unless he’s in the last year of his administration.

Another reason that the President should nominate a replacement as soon as possible, and the Senate should confirm, is that this year the Supreme Court has a particularly heavy calendar. There are many cases waiting to be heard, and some are critical issues that will have far reaching effect. The litigants ought not to be penalized by self-serving politicians. And there has never been a vacancy on the Supreme Court for a year, which is what the GOP obstructionists are proposing. Some of the decisions to be made by the court this term could…

  • Limit the ability of unions to collectively bargain (Friedrichs).
  • Further restrict the use of race in college admissions (Fisher).
  • Drastically limit the ability of people to band together in class actions to stop corporate wrongdoing (Spokeo, Campbell-Ewald, Tyson Foods).
  • Dismantle environmental regulations (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission).
  • Expand the scope of forced arbitration (DIRECTV and Zaborowski).
  • Further undermine the voting rights of communities of color in urban areas (Evenwel).
  • Sanction far-right efforts to radically restrict women’s abortion rights and ability to obtain contraceptive medical coverage (Whole Woman’s Health and Zubik).

If a new justice is not confirmed, the pending cases would be heard by a short-handed court. And since this court has been divided ideologically with a five to four conservative advantage, there is a great possibility of frequent ties should this vacancy remain. In the event of a 4/4 tie, the ruling of the lower court would stand. From the Republican perspective, this might not be to their advantage. After eight years of the Obama presidency the district courts currently have a majority of Democratic nominated judges. Consequently, those lower court rulings may be more to the liking of liberals. So any effort by the GOP to obstruct the confirmation of a new nominee by Obama may have the opposite effect of what they intend. Senate Republicans also risk the possibility that they will not be in the majority next year and the next president, if Democratic, would have far more leeway in who they nominate.

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

The bottom line is that our government is supposed to work on behalf of the people, not at the whim of the politicians. By obstructing Obama’s constitutional mandate, Republicans would only further cement the impression of them as fomenting division and gridlock. In an election year where the public is fed up with political game-playing, that will likely hurt Republicans at the polls. On the plus side, it might finally elevate the appointment of Supreme Court justices as an election issue. That would be a good thing that should have happened long ago.

Update: President Obama offered his condolences. He also responded to the GOP’s irresponsible and callous politicization of Scalia’s passing, saying in part that…

“Today is a time to remember Justice Scalia’s legacy. I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time. And there will be plenty of time for me to so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility and to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote. These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They are bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy.”


Stupid Polling Tricks: Fox News Hypes Absurd Poll Claiming That Trump Leads Big With Latinos

Posted by on February 13, 2016 at 3:08 pm. 3 Comments :

One of the most bizarre tangents in the 2012 election was the effort to spin all the polls showing President Obama ahead as deliberately distorted by a vast conspiracy of nefarious pollsters. They set about to “unskew the polls” through various methods of mathematical mischief. But all they ended up doing was creating a false impression of Obama’s weakness that left them shocked by his eventual landslide victory. And that willful self-deception is still in play today.

Fox Nation Donald Trump

Over at Fox Nation, the Fox News community website, they are featuring an article with the dubious headline “Poll: Trump Leads Big With Latinos.” However, there are a few details about this assertion that Trump is leading big (or as Trump would say, “bigly”) that have been left out.

The Fox Nation item linked to an article in The Daily Beast by conservative columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., that opened with a pertinent fact that the Fox Nationalists omitted from their headline. The Latinos in the poll were not from the population at large, but were exclusively Republicans. So whatever lead is alleged has to be put into the context that most Latinos (about 75%) are Democrats and, therefore, are not represented in this poll. The remainder of the article sought to explain why the premise of Latinos supporting Trump was not insane.

The most important of the omissions, however, was the fact that the poll was conducted on behalf of the ultra-conservative American Federation for Children. This benignly-named organization, according to Source Watch, is “a conservative 501(c)(4) advocacy group that promotes the school privatization agenda via the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and other avenues.” And ALEC is closely associated with the Koch brothers. So right off the bat the integrity of this poll should be brought into question but, of course, it was not. In fact, the poll was distributed throughout the right-wing-echo chamber to outlets like the New York Post and Breitbart News.

In addition to the the poll’s partisan scope of respondents, the sample size of Latinos was hardly sufficient to draw any accurate conclusions. The folks at Latino Rebels drilled down into the polling data and discovered how weak the case is for the claim that Trump is popular among Latino voters. The sample size was so small that it took only 21 respondents to produce the 38% allegedly favoring Trump. A reputable pollster would decline to release the results of such a thinly supported survey.

This is reminiscent of another poll recently touted by Trump that claimed that “Minorities Line Up Behind Donald Trump.” In that laughably useless poll there were just four respondents that made up Trump’s 40% advantage (that’s 4 out of 10). So this new poll actually improves on that abject silliness to become merely ordinary silliness.

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

The Republican Party knows that they have to attract more Latino votes, as they noted in their post-2012 “autopsy.” But they still aren’t demonstrating that they have any idea how to do that while maintaining a thoroughly anti-Latino agenda. The RNC has banned the biggest Latino news network, Univision, from hosting any GOP debates, and Trump said that he would nix Telemundo (which is currently scheduled to co-sponsor an upcoming debate with CNN). And despite all of this Trump still insists that he will win the Latino vote, and the African-American vote too. Yeah, sure he will.